Clay (A Balto Parody)
by TheWriterForGod42
Summary: Join a wild dragon named Clay as he goes on the adventure of a life time to bring the antitoxin to the children of Nome. Based on Universal Studios Balto master piece.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **\\_|_/**

 **Clay**

 **Written By: TheWriterForGod42**

Character Casting:

Clay – Balto (Played By Kevin Bacon)

Peril – Jenna (Bridget Fonda)

Flame – Steele (Played By Jim Cummings)

Rodan – Boris (Played By Bob Hoskins)

David and Thailog – Muk and Luk (Played By Phil Collins)

Riptide – Nikki (Played By Jack Angel)

Deathbringer – Kaltag (Played By Danny Mann)

Qibli – Star (Played By Robby Rist)

Rosy (Played By Juliette Brewer)

Meatlug – Dixie (Played By Sandra Searles Dickinson)

Stormfly – Stella (Played By Sandra Searles Dickinson)

 **\\_|_/**

 **Chapter One: Telling the story**

It was a beautiful autumn day in Central Park in New York City. The leaves were turning different colors and falling off of the tress. Though the sky looked cloudy there wasn't much of a chance for rain. The Park looked to be empty in most places, with the exception of three: a grandmother, her granddaughter and her granddaughter's Sandwing. They were walking through the park in search of something. But the grandmother, who went by the name of Rosy, seemed to a bit lost.

"It was here…" Rosy said, "someplace."

"But we've already been past here!" Her granddaughter cried. Rosy only chuckles at this and then said, "The trees have grown so big." She tries to remember the last time she was there, "It's been so long since my last visit."

The little Sandwing notices something and gives a small growl. Rosy sighed as she walked back to her granddaughter. The three begin to walk again and the little girl calls out to her Sandwing friend, "Come on, Sunny."

She turned to her grandmother and asked, "Grandma, when was the last time you were here?"

"Years and years ago." She said chuckling at remembering the last time she was here. "Way before you were born, sweetheart."

A few minutes later, when the sun shone through broken clouds, the two had come to a different part of the park. The little girl was excited when Sunny started chasing a squirrel and shouted, "Oh, look! Sunny found a squirrel!"

"Now, just a minute." Rosy asks her granddaughter for some time to think, "I'm trying to get my bearings." She sighed at all they ways to go, "Oh, there are so many paths here! So easy to get turned around." She laughs at lost they might become, "Come on, darling."

"Grandma," The little one complained, "we're in the middle of nowhere."

Grandma Rosy laughs as she says, "We're right in the middle of New York City."

"But you're gonna make yourself tired walking so long." Her granddaughter said. They continued walking through a different section of the park, even though Rosy said, "Nonsense. It hasn't been more than a quarter of an hour. Huh." She sighs and tries to reassure the little girl, "Not much further."

"Sunny is getting tired." Her granddaughter told her. Rosy said, "Oh, I see." Then she laughs. She looks down at the mushers cap in her hands and for a moment remembers something from a long time ago.

"Grandma, what are we looking for, anyway?" Her granddaughter asks as she sits down on a park bench. Rosy was quick to answer, "A memorial." This confused the little girl for a moment as she said, "A me-what?"

Laughing, she explains what she's talking about, "A reminder of a wonderful story…" She takes a deep breath and joins her granddaughter on the bench, "and a place very far away from here."

This makes her granddaughter excited and she asks, "What place is that, Grandma?"

Two quick nods as she remembers the place, she leans a little to her left and said, "Nome, Alaska. It's a small town almost on top of the world." She gave chuckle about where the town was and said, "Hmm. Now, that really was in the middle of nowhere, sweetheart." She began about one particular day, "In the cold winter of 1825… it was snowing hard."

The scene changes to one of land filled with pine and covered in snow. Grandma continued telling of what went on in Alaska, "Back then, the fastest and most reliable way of getting around… was with teams of dragons pulling long sleds." The view of a faraway town came into view as Rosy said, "Races were held every year… to find out the best team." Dragons started roaring real loudly over the snow covered land as she said, "And the competition was very fierce."

The dragons continued roaring as they ran across the icy slopes. Two dragon sled teams raced across the tundra, determined to win the race. As one team ran, the dragon's musher yelled, "Giddap, boy! Hut-ya! Hut-ya!"

As one of the teams kept running in the lead, the second team, lead by the black and white Skywing Flame, started to gain ground. Flame's musher yelled out, "Hyah! Hyah, hyah!"

All the dragons were panting from the exertion they were giving in the race. The Nightfury on the other team looked over and saw Flame starting to pass him. Not wanting to give the Skywing any ground, the Nightfury started to push himself. The mushers keep shouting as they pass two hills of snow. Both teams made their way to an obstacle in the race, a narrow pace that wouldn't give them much room! As the two teams raced to get to the pace first, Flame pulls the team ahead. This causes the dogs behind him to be pulled along with a shout or two. The musher then yells, "Heel! Whoa! Whoa!"

The two teams entered the pass and were now close to each other in the race. The musher yelled out, "Whoa!"

"Flame," Qibli, a small Sandwing tried shouting, "we're not gonna make it!" This earned him a kick in the face from the leader. The two teams keep running to the narrowest portion of the pass. The mushers try and make them slow down, "Easy, now. Easy! Easy! Hold back, hold back, hold back."

Flame looks over to one of the other team's members and an idea forms in his head. Waiting for the right moment, he was going to do something very sneaky. When the opportunity came, he made a lung for the dragon behind its leader and snapped at their talons. This causes the dragon on the other team to jump in fright with a yelp, but when he landed the dragon couldn't get back into running in sync with the other dragons. The dragon falls over and becomes entangled in the harness, which in turn causes the other dragons to slip and stop, crashing the sled. This makes the Nightfury's team lose their lead and possibly the race. Flame's team runs through the pass without any further opposition. It brings a smile to Flame's face as their lead gets bigger with every step. As Flame's team races ahead, the Nightfury's musher gets up, pounds the ground with a fist while yelling, "Ergh! Flame!"

Flame looks back to the pass with a wide grin on his face before turning back for the race and laughed, "Hah!" His musher yelled, "Get in line! Get in line!"

The team then keeps running for the finish line in the town of Nome. On a slope not too far from the course a man stands up and shoots off a signal flare. The flare soars up high, letting the people in town know that the racers were coming.

"It's the three-mile marker." Someone shouts as the crowd starts to cheer.

This is where we see a new face. Standing on the railing of a building, a Mudwing named Clay, which is considered one of lowest and wildest breeds of dragon, had his head lowered trying to pull something up. Clay was a Mudwing with two different shades of brown on his scales, dark brown along the top of his head, his back and parts of his wings and a lighter shade of brown that ran from his nose, to his underbelly to the tip of his tail. The flare started to go out in the sky as he brought the thing up, the thing started squawking and gasping as its head was in the Mudwing's mouth. Clay brought his friend Rodan up on the railing with him, while his head was still in his mouth. Rodan was an old kaiju bird, and didn't take to danger very well. He wasn't very fond of having his face inside Clay's mouth either as he commented in annoyance while trying pull himself out with his wings against Clay's snout, "Get you slobbery mouth off me!"

"Come on! Let's go, Rodan." Clay said when the kaiju got himself out. He started to move to where the crowd was and said, "We can cut around the back and catch the end of the race."

"On, no." Rodan protested as he grabbed the dragon's tail, "No, no, no, no. I'm a delicate country bird." Clay looks back to him, but doesn't say anything as he walks away. But Rodan keeps a firm grasp on Clay's tail as he whines, "I hate going into town."

"Ah, come on." Clay dismisses as he turned back to Rodan, "What's the worst that can happen?"

Just as the pterosaur was about to respond to that, Clay took off with the kaiju still holding on to his tail. Rodan screamed as he was dragged along with Clay as he ran across the railings and over gaps. After the jump Rodan was thrown into the air, but was quickly caught by Clay with his stubby tail in his teeth. Clay jumped over to clothes line where a pair of jeans were strung up. Placing Rodan in the pair of pants upside down, he then jumped and used the clothes line to shimmy his way to the next roof. Rodan muttered as the pants moved with Clay, "Please! Bleh!"

As they reached the other side of the line, Clay grabbed Rodan by the tail again and dragged him up on a snow covered roof. At the top of the roof, Clay let Rodan go from his teeth into the air. Rodan quickly flapped himself down to the roof and questioned the Mudwing, "Why do I let you talk me into these things?"

He rubbed his rump and took a step forward, but he started sliding down the other side of the roof. Sliding and then rolling, Rodan screamed almost fell off the roof but was saved by the antlers of moose's skull. With his foot caught on the antler he was dangling upside down again. Looking around he said, "Aye." Then looking to his left he saw kaiju birds that had been removed of feather's or scales, causing the pterosaur kaiju to scream, "Aaaaah!"

Before he could get away, a human hand snatched him off the moose antlers and pulled him inside. The human put the pterosaur on a chopping block belly down. When Rodan feels the man starting to pluck off some scales from his tail, he gets up and slaps the scales out of the man's hand, causing the human to be confused, "Huh?"

"What the-" Rodan begins to question as he put the scales back on his body, but sees that the man in front of him is a butcher. The butcher then said, "Yeah?" and then brought up the trademark butcher's knife. This causes Rodan to look as if he's about to cry, but instead he tries to make a break for the open window. But the butcher slams the knife in front of him, making him hit the metal face first. This allows the butcher take hold of Rodan again and place him back on the chopping block. Rodan screams a few scales off as the butcher raises the knife, every intention of cutting the pterosaur kaiju's head. Right as the blades shadow is lined up with his neck and comes down, Clay reaches through the window and takes Rodan's head into his mouth and pulls him out. Rodan laughs at the escape.

"Bring that back, you thief!" The butcher sticks his head out the window and angrily yells and swings his knife as Clay was now on another roof. Clay looks back at the butcher before noticing the sled team coming in while Rodan makes a few muffled sounds. Then the Mudwing looks over to where the finish line is. But before he can do more, Rodan with a muffled voice said, "You, put me down now, Mr. Goldenwings."

Clay chuckles as he tosses Rodan out of his mouth and said, "Whatever you say, Rodan."

"Every time there's a race, you run around like you're in it." The pterosaur kaiju said as he balanced himself on the roof. Clay started sliding down the snow covered roof and hopped down to the ground as nimbly and skilled as he could. He then proudly said, "Maybe one day I will be."

"Heel, boy!" Rodan said as he followed Clay down. As he slid down the roof he shouted, "Rodan Pterosauranov is no spring chicken! Aaah!" He slid right into a tilting window. He came crashing through the window, which surprisingly did not break and fell on the window sill. A pile of snow collapsed on top of him. He popped up while saying, "I'm no spring penguin, either."

Hopping out of the snow he exclaimed with a shiver, "It's cold!" He screams when he falls out of the sky. Lucky for him, Clay catches him on his back as he used a loose board to lean to a window. Both fell into the window.

Another flare went up into the air and exploded, making another man shouted, "Look! The two-mile mark!"

Clay and Rodan burst out a door near the ground, and with a short slide in the snow the Mudwing shouted, "Come on. We don't want to miss the finish."

"Oh, that would be a tragedy!" Rodan sarcastically said. He screams as Clay turned and ran in another direction, making Rodan scream and spin down into the snow. The pterosaur kaiju said out from the bottom of the hole, "I was being sarcastic."

In another part of town, inside of a woodman's shop, the woodman had just finished a small dragon sled. He lifted it up and placed it on the ground as another man chuckles before saying, "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

A little girl who went by the name of Rosy was standing next to her father had here eyes closed. When he told her she opened them. When she saw the sled, her face lit up with absolute joy as she giggled, "Oh!" She started jumping up and down with joy. She ran up to it as she said how much she loved it, "I love these rudders! I love this brush bow!" She turned to her parents as she said, "I love this sled!" She turned to her dragon friend Peril as the red and white Skywing grunted happily and the little girl said, "Peril, Peril, you're lead dragon!"

Rosy quickly, yet carefully put the harness around Peril, "Okay, just a minute." Then as she finished, she felt like pretending when she playfully yelled, "Come on, mush!"

Her mother stopped her for a moment by taking something out of her coat and then saying, "Then you'll need this." Rosy felt excited when her mother put a musher's hat on her head, "A real musher's hat!" She then proudly said, "We're a real sled team now. Mush!" Then Rosy jumped onto the back of the sled as Peril took off and ran out the door, with both the sled and Rosy with her.

Rosy's father as he paid the woodsmen, he said, "Mr. Johanssen, the sled is beautiful." His wife then said, "We're very grateful." Rosy then came running back in, very grateful as she said, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" As she hugged two out of three of the adults. Her father chuckled and said, "Rosy's grateful too, huh? Mr. Johanssen chuckled as well and said, "Yeah, so I gather."

Rosy calls out to her parents, "Watch this!" Her mother said, "Coming, sweetheart."

"I don't know, honey." Her husband said playfully as he wrapped an arm around her at the door, "I think we should've gotten her the dollhouse."

Another flare exploded overhead, making Rosy excited as she yelled, "It's the one-mile marker!" Then to her favorite lead dragon she yelled, "Mush, Peril, mush!"

Peril grunted in agreement as Rosy said, "Let's win this race!" She cheered as the two raced past her parents. Her mother said, "I think she'll learn to like it." She then planted a kiss on his cheek.

Rosy and Peril rounded a corner where everyone was watching the race. Rosy lightly gave out commands, "Peril, easy, girl. Whoa!" This made Peril start to slow down as a friend of hers caught up, a little Gronkle by the name of Meatlug as she said as if something important about her should be noticed, "Good morning, Peril. Oughta be a close race don't ya think? Maybe even neck and neck."

Another friend of Jenna's , a Deadly Natter by the name of Stormfly, popped up beside them and with a roll of her eyes, she said, "Say something about her collar before she gets whiplash."

Taking her friends advice as they kept walking to heart Peril then asked, "Uh, Meatlug, what a pretty collar. Is it new?"

"What? This old thing?" Meatlug dismisses at first, then she smiled as said, "Yeah. Do you think, um, Flame will notice?" Her fur frizz's up for a moment at the mention of his name. While Stormfly rolls her eyes at the thought, Jenna dismisses it by saying, "I'm afraid the only way Flame notices anyone is if they're wearing a mirror."

The crowd gets excited as the race starts to come to an end. There were a few shouts, "Watch that corner, son. They're coming!"

The dragons grunted as they ran while the people cheered them on as the team rounded the corner. As Flame ran towards the finish line, he noticed a trio of fan girls were watching from the side lines. This makes him stand tall as he runs while his musher shouts, "Come on, Flame!"

"You can do it!" A female dragon yelled as Clay made his way to a spot where he could watch the race. As he watched the sled dragons come down the street, he heard a voice over the others saying, "Peril! Stay, girl." He looks over to see Rosy and Peril standing by the side of the track. The cheering continues as Peril starts to look around. Clay looks over at her with a smile.

"Peril!" Rosy calls out to her and runs up to the Skywing. She hugs her friend while Peril rubs up against her girl. This makes Rosy laugh as Peril grunts in happiness. Clay watches them with happiness on his face as Rosy takes off Peril's harness. Rosy then took off her hat before shouting, "Bulldog. Come on, Flame!"

Suddenly the wind blows hard, snatching Rosy's hat out of her hand. The little girl cries, "Oh, no!" The hat floats to a distance onto the track. Both human and dragon gasp as the hat is now liable to be trampled by the sled teams. Clay sees their dilemma and then looks to see how close the sled team was. "My hat!" Rosy cried as she tries to go after her musher's hat, but Peril grabs her sleeve with her teeth to protect her. The sled team then rushes past Clay's viewing point at top speed. Taking his time, Clay jumps onto the track after the sled team completely passes him.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland, the Goliath's come from the game Evolve who are owned by their respected company. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans. Goliaths not much bigger.

 **Chapter Two: The Incredible Outcast**

Jumping onto the track, Clay rushed to save Rosy's hat from the oncoming sled team. Using all the speed he could muster, he quickly ran ahead of most of the other dogs on the sled team.

The crowd was not too pleased with Clay jumping in as a few shout, "Get that stray dragon! He's gonna ruin the race!"

Rodan has now made it to the track and tries to pull himself through a few human legs. He manages to make it through, but not without tumbling into a sitting position. Rodan looks up to the humans with an annoyed expression before looking over at the race. When he sees that Clay has jumped onto the track he screams. Flame soon notices the appearance of Clay, and angrily said, "Hey, out of my way, low-born." Clay, hearing what he said but choosing to ignore him, keeps his focus on the hat near the finish line. Soon, Clay was over taking Flame in speed. Rodan holds himself as he watches what the outcome will be. Clay was running with every intention of getting that hat for Rosy and smiled at how close he was. Flame tries the tactic he used to pull into the lead and snaps at Clay's feet, but Clay nimbly jumps up and over to grab the hat. Rosy and Peril gasp at the sight. Clay pulls the hat away with a slide just in time as the sled team passes the finish line.

Rodan shrieks at the sight of Clay doing something so dangerous, puts his wings up to his beak and shouts, "When will you learn to stay on the sidelines?!"

As the sled passed him, snow was thrown at him, and then he was completely covered in it. Wiping it off of his face he then makes the noise as he spits, "Pwah!"

In a building for sending telegraph messages, a man was working with the mentioned machine as he sent the message, and it beeped it made a Gronkle sleeping in a bed underneath the table respond with its ears, "To Juneau Daily Chronicle. Stop. Flame wins first place of season. Stop." The Gronkle tries to cancel the sound out by burying its head into its pillow as the man continued, "Three-time winner keeps golden collar. Stop." The Gronkle bites his leg when he notices it moving with the telegraph, "Nome. Stop. That Flame is some dragon, huh, Morris?" The man said as he patted Morris's head. Morris eye twitches as the man makes rhythmic grunting noises.

The crowd cheers as some members of the winning team including a proud look-ing Flame, Riptide a Seawing, Deathbringer a Nightwing, and Qibli a Sandwing, walks along the track. Riptide says to Flame, "Congratulations, there, boss, there. It was a pleasure runnin' behind yous." His face changed when he said, "Of course, the view got monotonous."

Deathbringer then added in, "You are the most amazing, most exalted, most preeminent, most top-drawer—"

"You won!" Qibli interrupted and then laughed happily. This makes Deathbringer growl in annoyance and balls his talons into a fist. In one quick motion he hits Qibli right on the noggin, comically knocking the smaller dragon out.

"Hmm, I don't know." Flame's musher said to the cameraman as he packed up. Flame made himself look strong as he joined the musher when the man asked, "Do you think maybe Flame's losing his edge?" The photographer commented, "Yeah, looks like just about any dragon could outrun him."

Flame tried to keep his composure as his musher walked away, but soon it broke with him growling at the one who upstaged him. Snarling in anger, he was soon directed to the one as Rosy yelled, "Clay!"

"What a cray thing to do," Rosy playfully scolded as Clay brought her hat back, "just to show off to a pretty girl."

Clay and Peril look to each other, the former with a smile and the latter with a look of surprise and which turned into one of gratitude. The she-Skywing smiled at him as Rosy suggested, "I'm sure Peril would love to have you on her team?" Then offered the Mudwing the harness. But all three faces turned to shock and disappointment as Rosy's father came in and pulled her away from Clay. He said, "Hey, hey! Rosy, stay away from him!"

"Dad!" Rosy protested. He tried to warn her as he kicked snow at Clay, "He might bite you, honey. He's a wild dragon." Clay was starting to walk away when he heard her father comment of being a 'wild dragon' and felt hurt by it.

"Oh, now you've hurt his feelings." Rosy complained as Clay walked away. Her father only said, "Come on, now."

Flame laughed as Peril walked with her family and walked right up to her, but was stopped when both Meatlug and Stormfly moved in his way. Meatlug then said, "Congratulations and felicitations, Flame." Flame moved to where his shadow fell on Meatlug's neck and made it look as if it licked her when he said, "Ladies."

This made Meatlug shudder before her entire body relax. Moving towards the beautiful Skywing he says, "Hi there, Peril. Enjoy the race?"

"Yeah." Peril said to make small talk, "Almost as much as you did."

Clay looked back as the two spoke. This disappointed Clay as his ears fell flat against his head as he continued to walk away. Flame then said, "Thanks. Peril, let's go celebrate." He tries to woo the uninterested Skywing by pressing up against her and saying, "I know where all the bones are buried."

"I don't know, Flame." She said, not at all interested as she said, "Suddenly I've lost my appetite."

This upsets Flame a bit, but he keeps his cool as he rolls his shoulders, popping the joints and said, "Well, maybe your taste runs more toward… wild."

Peril, not liking the comment one bit, turns to put Flame in his place, but before she can, Rosy calls her, "Peril, come on, girl. We're going back home."

She then only tells him, "Sorry, Flame. My girl is calling me." Flame tries to follow after her, but the untimely arrival of Meatlug stops him. She tries to woo him by saying, "On the other hand…" as she presses up against his shoulder and then slipped underneath him, "my girl is away at boarding school." She plays with his tag to flirt with him, but he only groans and belches as he walks over her. Overcome with him touching her, she fell onto her back, "Whoo! Oh! Oh!"

Clay and Rodan walk through the alley's of Nome as the head home. Rodan knew that Clay was feeling down about what happened, so he tried to think of something that would cheer him up. But when he tried to say something, he couldn't think of anything. He tried again, but only rubbed the back of his head with his wing as nothing really came to mind, looking disappointed as he couldn't think of anything to cheer the depressed Mudwing up. As Rodan thought to himself, Clay heard Rosy shouting, "Peril!"

"Huh?" Clay said as he listened. He brightened up at the sound of Peril's name. As Rosy kept calling the Skywing's name, Clay ran to where the voice was coming from with Rodan chasing after him. Clay jumped over a stack of barrels and ran to a hole in a fence. Almost not noticing where he was going, he nearly collided with Peril. Quickly skidding to a stop, he lightly touched noses with her, causing her to gasp in shock, "Oooh!"

Clay gives her a nervous chuckle and steps back and sits on his haunches with a smile. Clay starts to say, "Peril, I, uh—"

Peril smiles as he tries to explain, but she looked away when her family called, "Jenna! Jen, come on!" She turns back to say something to Clay, but gasps when she finds him gone. She notices a trail of pawprints that went back through the hole in the fence. Peril moves closer to see any sign of him, but was called when Rosy's father calls to her, "Jenna! Come here, girl."

The red and white Skywing backs out through the hole and runs to catch up with her girl's family. Clay can only watch from underneath an old truck as she disappeared. Sighing and a frown forms on his face he turns to walk the other way. Rodan catches up with him and tries to make the poor dragon feel better, "Clay, there's some things I can't do for you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Clay said as he understood. The pterosaur kaiju makes a love comment, "I'm kaiju, not Cupid."

"Didn't make the team, Muddy?" A familiar, yet jerky voice said coming from behind. Rodan put a wing next his peak and tried to offer Clay advice how to handle the situation, "Don't listen to him. Don't look at him. Live a long life."

"My name's Clay." The Mudwing shot back. The reaction surprises Flame at first, but a grin grows on his face as Clay walks towards him. Rodan sighed as he looked to the sky and commented, "But you can call him 'idiot'."

"I'm sorry. Clay." Flame said sarcastically, making Clay angry. He added insult to injury as he said, "Clay the low-born."

Flame's friends start laughing at his insults. Flame walks over to Rodan and asks, "Frail kaiju, you a low-born too, huh?" Rodan was only able to stutter at this.

This frightens Rodan a little as Flame gets up into his face and said, "Part turkey?" Then he used his snout to knock the pterosaur kaiju into a service tray that closed on impact. Riptide then laughed as he said, "Good wordplay there, boss."

"You are the wittiest, the quickest." Deathbringer added in with Riptide agreeing with him, "Yeah."

Deathbringer kept going with compliments, "You are the drollest, the cleverest, the sharpest." Riptide once again agrees, "Yeah." Deathbringer struggled with one as he said, "You are the most 'hilariousest'." Qibli interrupted by saying, "You crack me up." This annoyed the other two dragons again as Deathbringer went to hit him, but for a moment the Sandwing wouldn't hold still. When he finally did, the irritated Nightwing bonked him on the head. Qibli laughed hysterically before saying, "Whoopee!" Then he fell unconscious.

Clay ran in between Flame and the trapped Rodan and looked up at him to say, "Flame, just leave him out of this."

The other dragons began taunting him. Flame then turns himself and swats his tail in Clay's face twice before keeping the bullying up, "Oh, Clay, I've got a message for your mother."

Flame joins his team and then begins to mock roar in contrast to what wild Mudwings would sound like. His friends laughs at this and then joined in the roaring as their heads looked really fat from up in the air. This makes Clay very angry as he begins to growl and stalked towards the offending dragons. Rodan uncovers himself and is scared when he sees Clay as Deathbringer taunts, "Hey, Clay, translate this for me, will ya?" The mock roaring continued. "Clay, stop!" Rodan tried to stop Clay by grabbing onto his tail and failing to hold him back as Qibli said, "What's Mudwing for 'go chase your tail'?"

Clay continues growling as he keeps moving towards the four. Rodan yells out futile times, "Whoa!" as the roaring continues. Flame and soon the other three notice Clay slowly coming towards them menacingly. "Oh. Uh-oh." One of the dogs said. Knowing that they have him outnumbered, Flame orders, "Get him."

The trio jump in front of Flame, as he watches with a smile, while they start snarling and grunting fiercely. Flame then said, "Get outta here, low-born. You better get back to your pack." On the word 'pack' he spits a glob of saliva at Clay. It lands on Clay's snout, but he shrugs it off as Rodan crawls to be in front of him and said, "Maybe it's the unrelenting fear talking, but I'm seeing wisdom in this advice." Clay starts to listen to the pterosaur kaiju as he starts to push the Mudwing away while saying, "Maybe we go now, huh? Now!"

The four bully dragons laugh as the two start to walk away. They turn around and start kicking snow as Deathbringer then makes a joke about Rodan, "I'm thinking Clay's friend's got his scales chipped."

Clay and Rodan are soon pelted with snow, making one cover himself as the other can only be annoyed at doing nothing, as Qibli says while laughing, "That gets your kaiju! I get it!" The laughing continues as Flame takes a rock and kicks it at the Mudwing. The rock hits Clay square in the head, making him fall and slip into some propped up boards with a grunt before Clay and Rodan run. Riptide then makes a comment, "Low-born in the side pocket there." This causes the other two dogs to laugh. While Qibli starts to scratch himself, Deathbringer then compliments on the throw, "That was the most dead center, the most on target, the most down the middle—" Qibli then shouted, "Ya hit him!" Once again, this annoys his fellow dragons as Deathbringer growls. Qibli covers head, but he sees that Deathbringer has let it go. Just when he thought he was in the clear, Deathbringer's balled up talons crashed into the Sandwing's lower jaw. Qibli once again passes out onto the ground. Flame laughs as he leaves through a hole in another fence. When the black and white Skywing was gone, Riptide then places a talon beside his mouth and comments, "That son of a—"

"He is the most malicious, the most disgusting," Deathbringer adds in, "the most obnoxious, revolting, repulsive and the most—" Riptide agreed with him on that much, "Yeah." Qibli, having gotten back up, put in his two cents, "He's no lap dog." He looks at the other two dragons, nervously laughs when he realized he made his mistake, and gasps when he decides to do it himself. He groans as he falls over again. The two dogs looked to each other, not knowing what to say.

Clay and Rodan slowly walked through the snow covered beach of Nome, in sadness. Clay stops to sniff the air and smells a pack of wild Mudwings nearby. The Mudwings climb over a nearby hill and see the young Mudwing. Clay soon sees them looking at him. Clay, not sure of what to do, only watched them. The pack of Mudwing's look at him, before one of them roars to him, inviting him to join them. Clay only sighed, "Hmm." The Mudwing pack took a step closer and waited to see what he would do, but Clay only turned away from them. Rodan only watched as Clay walked off, and then turned to the Mudwing pack with a sigh. The pack walks off as well as Rodan silently thought, _Considered to be a low-born dragon,_ then he said, "All he knows is what he is not." They made it to the boat where they lived as he continued, "If only he could see what he is."

Rodan sighed as Clay made his way up to the deck. The pterosaur tried to think of a way to cheer the sad Mudwing up. Then with a snap of his fingers and a smile on his beak an idea came to him. Rushing through a hole in the boat, he came up out of another on the deck, and with a grunt he grabs a bone and starts chomping it like a dragon would, trying to cheer the lad up. But Clay only walked past him with his head hung low. Another idea came and he ran in front of Clay, grabbing a water dish and starts slurping like a dog. But it proved futile as Clay keeps walking. He stops his slurping with a, "Hmm." and filled cheeks.

Taking a deep shallow, he can only watch as Clay walked into the boat's cabin towards a blanket. The saddened Mudwing then nuzzled his way under the blanket and turned to where he faced out the door. His attention was snatched when a toy a of a cat with wheels for legs rolled off a ledge and right past him. But the toy hits something with a loud crash. Clay looks to where the toy came from with an annoyed expression as Rodan pokes his head around the corner with a smile and a wave. But Clay doesn't feel any different as he just lays there and closes his eyes. Rodan walks in front of him and stands there until the dragon notices him. When Clay does he starts doing a Russian dance with a double, "Hey!" He stepped to the rhythm with another, "Hey!" He did a spin as he stepped to the dance and ends it with a final, "Hey!" and his wings spread out. Seeing his attempt fail and Clay still feeling blue, Rodan hangs his head and walks towards Clay. Laying down on his belly beside the young Mudwing, the two stare forward before they both let out a big sigh. Their attention was soon grabbed as birds started squawking overhead.

Looking up, they saw a flock of pterosaur kaiju flying in V-formation towards a certain destination. Looking to his pterosaur friend, Clay asks with a smile, "Homesick, Rodan?" This makes Rodan a little irritated with him as he asks, "Do you ever think about going back?"

Rodan shakes his head as he rubs the top of Clay's head in a fatherly like manner and said, "Don't fret, Draco." He walks off and grabs a mop saying, "I'm sticking here until I'm sure you can stand on own four feet."

"You're taking care of me?" Clay playfully questioned as he stood up. Clay walked out of the cabin as Rodan then said, "Don't thank me."

Clay chuckles at this and then starts sniffing. He then announced, "I smell…" He perked up when he said, "herring."

"The herring are flying south too." Rodan guessed. Clay then happily said, "Say, must be David and Thailog."

"Ah! Good news!" Rodan scoffs at this. He then jumps when a new voice shouted, "Uncle Rodan!" All the pterosaur kaiju could say was, "Oh, no!"

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Three: On the Road to Disaster**

Rodan made the mop handle point outwards in a defensive position as he feared the worst from David and Thailog. Clay then made the comment, "How sweet. Uncle Rodan."

"No hugging! No licking!" Rodan defiantly said as he picked up the mop bucket and made it into a shield with whatever water was still in it spill out, right as David, a Goliath cub came running on the deck of the boat towards him, all the while shouting, "Uncle Rodan!"

Rodan braces himself with a gasp and a shudder as the Goliath cub kept coming. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, but was curious as to why it didn't come yet. Opening his eyes he saw that David had been stopped by the mop handle. Breathing a sigh of relief and wiping his brow, he would be surprised from behind as Thailog bumped into him from behind with a weird noise, and wrapped his arms around the pterosaur kaiju with his big arms. He sputters as Thailog wraps him tightly in a bear hug and then makes muffled screaming. David misinterprets this and said, "He says he's glad to see us." Thailog then gives Rodan a big lick on the cheek, which annoys their 'uncle' very much. David happily exclaims, "We love you, Uncle Rodan."

Rodan pulls himself out of Thailog's hug with a scream and losing a few scales as he fell to the floor. David catches the pterosaur kaiju, and then jumps out of the Goliath's arms grumbling and muttering, making Thailog whimper and making him lose the scales he caught. Rodan catches his scales back and starts to put them back on his body. He notices that a big scale was missing from the bony part of his wing and the remaining two not close to fitting. Then he hears Thailog whimpering behind him. Looking back he sees that the Goliath cub has the missing scale twirling between his fingers happily. Rodan snatches the scale back, making Thailog upset as he whimpers. He whimpers to his brother, questioning as he tries to hug David. David then reassures him with a few good light slaps to the face, "What are you talking about? Of course he's glad to see us." Rodan is busy putting his scales back in as David said, "He loves us." Then he looks to the kaiju and asks, 'Don't you?" Clay looks over his shoulder and waits to see what Rodan would say.

Rodan sighed and said, "Aye, okay, okay." Then he and Clay turned to the Goliath cubs as the former said, "Hey, boy chicks! Let's play a game."

"Yes, please, Uncle Rodan." The two Goliath perked up. Then motioning the game he said, "Race you to the shore." David and Thailog get into racing position as Rodan started the game, "One, two, three, go!"

The two Goliath cubs then raced off the boat in joy and shout, "Yeah!" Clay stands against the railing and then looks to Rodan as he said, "They win." A loud splash, followed by screams for help, "Help! Help! I can't swim!" Both of them rushed to the Goliath cubs rescue. Clay rushed down to the shore, but stopped with a sliding spin and smiled as he and Rodan looked at the two cubs in 'trouble' in the water. David kept screaming, "Help, help! We're drowning! We're drowning! Save us!"

Now annoyed with them again, Rodan yelled to them, "Goliaths! Fellas! Idiot balls of scales!"

Clay nudges the pterosaur and said while Rodan walks up to them, "Easy, Rodan. You know how they are." Then he yelled to the cubs, "David! Thailog! Relax! Hey, you're okay! You're not drowning." David gasps at this revelation and stops thrashing in the water. He lifted his head out of the water and saw Rodan's reflection in it as the kaiju said, "He has point, Goliaths. You're not drowning, because…" He paused as David looked up to him as he put his snout to the beak and Rodan said, "if you were both normal, you will observe, perhaps…" He smacks David in the face with his wing as he points out, "tide is out!"

Rodan shakes his feet and then walks out of the water. Thailog then whimpers something to his brother, which Rodan heard and took offense to it and asked with a stink eye, "He said what?"

"'Oh, the shame of the Goliath who fears the water!'" David said, making Rodan look skeptical as the Goliath cub continued, "No wonder we are shunned by our fellow Goliath. Woe is us!'" He pointed to his brother and said, "That's what he said. Kind of pathetic really." Then the smaller Goliath started to play with a small piece of ice in the water.

"What, more whimpering?" Rodan scoffs as he begins to follow Clay back to the boat, "Between you and Clay, it's like Dostoyevsky novel around here. Lighten up."

Later that day as the sun started to set, Clay sat on the leaning rail of the board, looking towards the town of Nome. A smile forms on the Mudwing's face as a certain pterosaur kaiju jumps up next to him and asks, "And what is so interesting?"

Clay let's out a happy sigh before saying, "Peril."

"It's love." Rodan tells him. He then tells the love-stricken dragon, "So go make move." Clay looks to Rodan as the kaiju moves a foot from him and said, "When the angels' balalaikas strum the sweet song of love…" Clay smiles as Rodan strikes a pose and starts dancing, "Mambo!"

"Nah, she's not my type." Clay tries to dismiss, on the account of a few things. This causes Rodan to stop dancing as he asks, "And why not? This wild dragon business again?" He walks in a small circle on the railing and asks, "And what's wrong with being half and half, I'd like to know." To make the Mudwing perk up, Rodan wraps a wing around Clay and said, "Sometimes I wish like crazy I was half eagle."

Clay chuckles as he asks, "Why?"

"Better profile for one thing. Hmm," The pterosaur kaiju said as one point while wiping something from his eye. He becomes really happy when he said, "and no one eats you, for another."

In front of the hospital in Nome after night had come, Peril could only wait outside as she grew worried about Rosy. Looking through a big window, she saw Rosy coughing a fit. Inside the hospital, a lot of kids were sick as the doctor checked on them. Peril grunted loudly from outside, which Rosy heard. Looking out the window she saw the red and white Skywing and happily said, "Peril?"

Peril grunted happily as Rosy came to the window. The little girl was just as happy when she saw her dragon, "Peril! Peril!" Rosy opened the door and ran out of the doctor's office to her friend, "Hi, girl!"

The two laugh and grunt happily at the small reunion. But as they started to play, Rosy started to cough again. This made Peril worried as she immediately knew something was wrong with her girl. Peril whimpers and tries to see if Rosy is all right by pressing her snout against the girl, but Rosy pets the top of her head to calm her. Her father comes to the door and calls to her, "Rosy!" He steps out of the office with a coat for Rosy, "Rosy, come on. You're gonna catch your death out here."

"Okay, Dad." Rosy said as he took her back inside. Her father told her, "Come on, honey. The doctor's waiting."

Rosy starts coughing again as Peril watches them walk back inside. When the door closes, she jumps up onto a box underneath the window and looks for her girl. But all she can see are other sick kids. Jumping off the box, she moves around the building to see if she can find Rosy again. She jumps onto a barrel in an alley and looks in the window above it. She doesn't see Rosy and keeps on moving. Jumping onto a nearby pile of wood, Peril looks into the window and sees Rosy with her parents and the doctor. Peril has a smile at first, but it fades as she sees how sick Rosy is.

The doctor checks Rosy with his stethoscope, and then feels her throat. Rosy only sits as she tries to swallow. Peril can only watch from the window, wishing she knew what was wrong with Rosy.

Clay walked over to the hospital and saw Peril at the window. As he starts walking up to her, he sees a frozen puddle and looks down into it. Clay notices he has a bit of black dirt on the top of his head. Not wanting to embarrass himself, he takes a talon full of snow and rubs it against his head. It doesn't come off so he tries again with a little more elbow grease. It still doesn't come off, so Clay can only hope that it wasn't too much of an issue. He then continues walking towards Peril.

Peril is still looking into the window as Clay comes up behind her. Clay then tries to get her attention, "Peril?" She doesn't hear him, so he clears his throat and said, "Uh, Peril."

"Clay." She turns and sees him there. But she turns back to the window while saying, "Hi."

"Hi." He said back. Looking to the ground as he thinks of what to say and how to say it, he tried to ask her, "Look, uh… just a shot in the dark," He stuttered as he tried to say, "but I-I was wondering if, uh—I don't know, maybe you'd like to go chase a few sticks by moonlight."

He chuckles at this, but sighs when he notices that she wasn't paying attention to him at the time. Clay immediately notices as Peril begins to sniffle at what she sees in the window. Clay then asks, "Peril?"

"Rosy's in there." She told him as he joined her on the log pile. Clay was curios about this and asked, "In the hospital. Why?"

Peril answers as the doctor is taking her temperature, "She feels warm. She has a terrible cough." As the doctor takes the thermometer out Rosy wheezes when she breathes, followed by another coughing fit. Turning to him, Peril asks, "Clay, what's wrong with her?"

"Huh." Clay said as he didn't know exactly. But he then thought of a way of finding out, "I'm not sure, but I know how to find out." With a quick motion of his head he said, "Come on."

The two dragons jumped off the pile of wood as Peril followed Clay around the corner. They come to a padlocked door. Clay then gives a small smile and tells her as he nodded to the door, "I have the keys to the city." He then stands on his back legs and uses his right talon to remove the pins holding up the door. He pushes the door open and let's her go in first by saying the gentleman thing, "After you."

As Peril walks past him, she notices how big his talons are. He's a little embarrassed as she said, "Clay!"

Chuckling he then said, "Big talons kinda runs in my family." Clay then walks inside the building and then said, "At least with most of my family."

Clay leads her through an opening that goes under the hospital. Clay jokes with her, "Stay close." She only laughs once before commenting, "No problem there."

Peril sees how dark it is underneath the hospital as they keep moving. Clay turned a corner as she said, "It's so gloomy down here." She makes herself sound brave by saying, "Not that I'm scared or anything." She stops with a gasp as she nearly ran into a spiderweb.

"Gloomy? Clay asks as he uses his tail to remove the webbing from her path, "You kidding?" The two dragons kept crawling underneath the floor as he said, "It's the most beautiful spot in the world."

He crawled underneath a cloth and then held it up for Peril and said, "Dogs travel for years just to be right here."

Peril had something on her snout as she asked, "Here? I can't see why." Clay uses his talons gently to remove the torn piece of cloth from her snout. Licking one of her talons and wiping her face with it, Clay smiled as he leans over and said, "That's 'cause you're looking at the bowl half empty."

He walks up to a small mound of dirt with some broken bottles and said while pushing them under the grate, "See this? It's the polar ice caps."

"Clay, those are broken bottles." Peril corrects him and then points out the obvious, "And they're not half empty, they're all empty."

Clay doesn't stop as he motions to a lantern in the room above them, "The sun." Peril scoffs at this, thinking Clay was playing some kind of game and said with a sigh, "Ahh, Clay." But Clay keeps it up as he faces a certain direction and said, "And… to the north—"

Clay steps out of the way, letting the light hit the bottles and they reflect to a wall, and thus creating as Peril gasps in awe, "The Northern Lights!

"Ohh!" Peril thought it was absolutely beautiful as she looked at it. She then said, "Oh, Clay, you're right. It's beautiful."

Clay only looked at her when he said, "Yeah. Beautiful." This makes Peril look to him, and then they start leaning their heads toward each other, but their moment was ruined when something blocked the lantern's light. Both dragons looked to the grate and moved towards it to look up as the doctor said, "Good night, Rosy."

"I'm so cold." Rosy said. Clay and Peril look up through the grate to see what was happening. The doctor then said, "Well, I have another blanket for you right here. You stay warm and get some rest."

The doctor walks over the grate and out of the room. Rosy starts coughing again as the two dragons move towards another grate. Coming underneath the second grate, they both look up and watch as the doctor walks in and speaks to Rosy's father. Rosy's father asks him, "How is she doctor?"

"Exhausted from coughing. Her fever's getting worse." The doctor responds. This makes Peril gasp with worry as the doctor said, "Looks like diphtheria. She's the eighteenth case this week." He sighs as he notices that he's out of the right medicine. "And I'm out of antitoxin."

Peril whimpers at the worst thought and moves away. Clay looks for her and said, "Peril?" He sees her quickly walking out and tries to say, "Peril, I'm sorry. I—Peril, I-" He quickly went after her and as they emerged in the boiler room he said, "I didn't mean to upset you." Clay shook his head thinking it was his fault as he said, "I shouldn't have taken you down there."

"No. I'm glad you did." Peril said to sound more grateful than what she was feeling.

A crash caused them both to look out the door to see Flame covered in boards while holding chain-link sausages in his mouth. Peril gasps in surprise, "Flame!"

Clearing his throat, Flame removed the boards off of him and then said as he walked in, "Well, well, what's wrong with this picture?"

Quickly swatting Clay with the sausage link, the black and white Skywing then turned to Peril and said while wrapping the sausages around her shoulders, "Peril, join me for dinner. You start at one end, I'll start at the other," He puts himself between Peril and Clay, "and when we get to the middle, well…" He said with a laugh, "you tell me." And then starts to pull her with the sausage links. Clay started to intervene here, "All right, Flame." And grunts as he misses taking a bite out of the sausages. But Peril stopped him by saying, "No, Clay."

Clay becomes confused as Peril walks over to Flame with a laugh and rubs her tail under Flame's chin. Flame chuckles at this as Peril starts to lightly push Flame in a certain direction. With a quick motion of her head, she silently tells Clay her plan. Clay looks to what she's pointing to, in this case the furnace, and a smile grows on his face as he looks back. Peril then said, "Gee, Flame…" Peril slowly kept pushing the unknowing Skywing towards the furnace, "I have to admit your offer is very tempting." Flame's backside is now facing the opening as he chuckled, "It is?" He keeps stepping backwards, thinking that Peril would be all his. Peril then uses clever word play as she said, "These days, I prefer my meat… cooked." Flame's rump is now pressed up against the furnace. Flame starts sniffing at the smell of burnt scales, and when he realizes its him he screams out in pain.

Clay and Peril start to make a break for it as Clay yelled, "Come on! Let's go!" The two ran out of the boiler room. Clay makes the door shut right as Flame gives chase, but the wood is shattered as Flame burst through it and landed on top of Clay and Peril. The black and white Skywing snarled as the sausage links wrapped around his neck. They heard someone coming, "What's all the noise?"

"I think it's over here." A man said as they see someone coming around the corner. Clay started to lead Peril to safety and said, "Peril, come on."

Flame was almost alone as he began to think of what the humans would do if they caught him with the sausage. An idea formed in his head, and then with a growl he unwrapped the sausage from him and threw it at Clay. The Skywing then pointed with his snout at their direction. The flying sausages wrapped around Clay's legs, making trip and tumble in the snow. Rosy's father and the butcher came up to him and shown the light on the Mudwing. Clay gasps as Rosy's father said, "Looks like Clay's found his way into your meat locker." Clay moved away from the sausages as the butcher came up and took them back while saying, "It's a good thing Flame was here." The butcher turned to Flame and said, "Good boy, Flame. You've earned these." Flame happily accepted the sausages and looked at Clay with a smug expression as he was rewarded and the butcher commented, "Besides, I can't do anything with them after that wild animal's touched them."

Rosy's father kicks snow at Clay to make him go, and said, "Go on! Get out of here, you thief!" Peril tried to run after him, but Rosy's father caught her by her bandana and said, "Come on, Peril, let's go home." Peril can only watch in sadness as her friend continues to run.

Clay runs around the corner to where he comes in front of the hospital, but as he tries to slow down he slips before regaining his footing. He runs past the steps as a man places a sign on the door. The sign was a warning to all that said 'Quarantine'.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Four: The Race for the Kids**

Later in the telegrapher's office, a message was being sent while the messenger was listening to what he should say. The man reading the message said, "Anchorage. Stop. Repeat, urgent request. More diphtheria antitoxin. Stop." The Gronkle in the telegrapher's office began to listen as the man continued, "Nome in grave danger. Stop. Please help. Stop." The Gronkle was soon worried when the word 'danger' was mentioned.

The incoming antitoxin went through many forms of transport, from sailing on a ship over the ocean as a blizzard blew through, to going through the air by plane, but it wasn't able to get off the ground, then they tried to use the trains. But it wasn't able to get far as a message about its arrival was read, "Nome, pack ice closing in. Cannot ship antitoxin by sea. We'll try by air. Nome, storm at airport. Planes grounded until storm clears. Many regrets. From Juneau, office of the governor. We are shipping antitoxin by rail. Stop. Train line ends at town of Nenana. Stop. Select fastest dragons for sled team… to carry antitoxin from Nenana to Nome. Stop. God willing, train will make it through. Stop."

Soon a race was being held to see who would be on the team to go and retrieve the medicine from Nenana. At the race a musher told everyone what the message said, "'Select the fastest dragons for the sled team… to fetch the antitoxin." He then talked about the race, "The race will run the length—"

Dragons were lined up at the starting line, getting ready to run the race. As Flame approached the dragons at the line, they all stood at attention. The black and white Skywing held his head high as he looked them over, "Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm."

Across the street, Peril and Meatlug sat and stood on a pile of boxes and barrels, watching it go down.

"Just look at him." Meatlug said in awe, "He's gonna save the entire town." She looks to Peril and said with a ruffle of her scales, "He's positively 'magnesium.'"

"It's not exactly a one-dog show, Meatlug." Peril points out with a small shake of her head, "They're racing to see who's gonna be on the dragon sled team."

"What's with you, Peril?" Meatlug questions. She then sticks up for the black and white Skywing, "Flame's a genuine hero." She sticks her nose up as she said, "But do you give him a sniff?"

"That's because Peril is running with Clay." Stormfly jumps in beside the Gronkle. Meatlug shrieks as she looked at Peril with disbelief. Stormfly then tells how it happened, "She was seen in the boiler room the other night with Clay." Meatlug gasps as the Deadly Natter jumps off her box and continues, "And they went in together, and they left together. And I heard it all from a very reliable source. And don't bother to deny it."

"Well," Peril said, not bothering to lie, "then I won't."

This surprises both of her friends as Stormfly says with gasp, "I'm speechless."

"All mushers," Flame's musher yelled, "get your dragons ready! The race is about to begin!"

Clay and Rodan weren't that far from the race as they stood on a nearby fence. The fence wobbled as Clay walked on it. Rodan didn't like it one bit as he said, "Clay, racing is a spectator sport." The pterosaur kaiju wobbled as he made his way over to an open window while saying, "It requires very little preparation." He trips the last few steps with a squawk and sighs as he picks himself back up. He plopped himself into the window sill, picked up a box and said, "You sit, you arrange refreshments." He reaches into the box and pulls out a chip and offered, "Do you like potato chip?"

He pops the chip in his mouth and eats it. After swallowing it he, burps up a bubble which surprises him. Rodan looks at the back of the box to see that it was a box of soap flakes as Clay said, "I'm not watching the race, I'm running it."

Rodan gasps and then spits the rest of the soap before questioning, "You said what?"

Clay jumps onto the slanted part of a building and said, "Hey, look, I'm gonna help Rosy get better." He jumped off and walked over to Rodan as the kaiju wobbled halfway, "I can get that medicine through." He jumps over Rodan as he was about to say something. He jumps again as Rodan turned to face him while saying, "First of all, get it through your head…" But Clay had already jumped to the other side, making him turn to face the Mudwing as he said, "that they wouldn't put you in a sled team even if you did win, which won't happen. And if it did, it wouldn't matter!"

He crossed his arms and turned his head away from the dragon with his eyes closed. Clay then made a small joke as he leaned towards his friend, "Rodan, did you ever think maybe you're the reason the other pterosaur kaiju fly south?"

"If only your feet were as fast as your mouth." Rodan commented as he looked to Clay with squinted eyes. "Dragons to the line!" The man shouts as a whistle blows, making Clay know it was time to make his move, "Hey! They're starting."

Jumping off the fence Clay looked back and said, "Wish me luck."

"Luck?" Rodan questioned and then shouted as Clay made his way to the track, "I don't wish you luck! I wish you sense!" When the Mudwing was out of ear shot, Rodan softens his expression and then quietly said in support, "Good luck, kiddo."

Clay moves in between Riptide and Deathbringer with determination on his face, bringing shock to the latter as he said, "You—Clay? What are you nuts?" He looks around for a specific dragon as he said, "If Flame catches you, he's gonna turn you into lamb chops."

"Let us let the wild dragon run." Riptide said, thinking that it might be fun, "It will be fun making him eat our snow." Deathbringer's face changes at the thought. Soon the musher begins the race, "Ready! Get set!" The race starts when the man fires the pistol. All of the racing dragons take off down the track. A few dragons on the sideline see Clay among the racers. Peril gasps, "Clay?"

"What does he think he's doing?" Meatlug questions at the thought of him in a race. As Clay runs behind Riptide and Deathbringer, the two dragons decide to prevent him from being able to get past them between the two, so they press themselves together to stop him. But Clay only runs around them from Riptide's side and starts to gain on them.

Rodan watches from up on the fence in anticipation, quietly rooting for the Mudwing, "Oh, Clay, come on, come on." Then thinking that no one was really watching him he cheers much better and loud, "Clay, go!"

The dragons soon come up on their first turn and grunted as they ran. As Clay and Riptide came up on the second turn, Riptide kicks Clay in the face with a laugh, making the Mudwing groan as he rolled down on to a frozen pool of water and started sliding.

Rodan gasps at the blow and shouts, "Hey! That's a foul! Where's the referee?! He's blind?!"

Clay kept sliding until he stopped on the ice. Clay looked up to the running dragons and with a more determined face, he gets up and starts to use an unconventional method to get back into the race. Sliding to some poles sticking out of the frozen water, he climbs up the first and bounds across the others as Rodan cheers, "Go, Clay, go! Jump, jump, jump!" The pterosaur kaiju laughs as he said, "That's… my boy!" Underneath the same fence, Peril sticks her head through and sees what Clay is doing and begins to cheer too, "Go, Clay!"

As Clay bounded across the poles he jumped onto a floating barrel and then onto solid ground. He didn't join back into the race just yet, for he had another idea in mind as Rodan questioned it, "Clay, where are you going? That's the wrong way."

He ran over and under boat parts as he ran beside the race. Rodan then yelled as Clay started climbing up a ladder to the top of a boat, "Clay, get back in the race!" Jumping from one boat to another, he ran to the railing of the second ship and sprang into the air. He came down right in front of Riptide, startling the dragon so much that he stopped, being confused all, "Huh?" But this proved to be a mistake as he was then run over by another dragon who yelled, "Sorry!" Riptide sat back up with snow packed into his mouth.

Rodan yelled in absolute joy, "Who's eating whose snow now, drake?"

All the dragons soon rounded the third and fourth corner's of the track as the crowd cheered. Clay kept the lead position as they ran the final leg of the race and through the finish line. Flame's musher snapped down on a stop watch, "Time!" Then looked down it in utter confusion, "What?"

Rodan laughed as he said, "Did I teach him well! I could kiss that crazy pooch."

Clay slowed to a stop on the track panting as he heard Peril grunting with joy. He looked over and saw her looking back him with pride. Clay turns to see Flame coming up with his head held high in the snobbish way, saying, "Okay, Riptide, Deathbringer, Qibli, move it. We're strapping up."

Clay, not liking what he was seeing or hearing, decided to set Flame straight, "Hey, now, just a second here, Flame." Flame was about to keep going when Clay pointed out, "I was the fastest dragon." This makes Flame stop in his tracks and decides to insult the Mudwing, "You were the fastest… what?"

Clay narrows his eyes his eyes as Flame comes up to him and with a circle around the Mudwing, he said, "Do you honestly think any musher would ever put you on his team?" He gets up in Clay's face as he said, "You're even more mixed up than I thought."

"Flame, it doesn't matter who's on the team." Peril said, coming to defend Clay. Clay smiles at the thought of her being a true friend. Peril then angrily pointed out, "So long as the medicine gets through." She got into his face as she sternly said, "Stop being such a glory hound."

Flame thought about what she said, but he didn't really care when he pretended to agree with her, "You're a hundred percent right, Peril." He lays his ears back flat as he said, "I, I wasn't thinking about those children. The important thing here is to get the medicine through, and that's just what I'm gonna do." Flame really gets into Clay's face as he threatened, "And when I come back, I'm gonna fold you five ways… and leave you for a cat toy."

"Good dragon, Flame!" His musher said. This makes Flame put on an act as the man comes over. The musher pats Flame on the head and then said, "Good boy. Now let's take a look at our winner here." The mere mention of Clay being a winner makes Flame's blood boil. Growling as the musher moves towards Clay, he man said, "Let's take a look at our winner."

Flame plays a dirty move and stomps down hard on Clay's forepaw. This causes Clay to snarl in pain, showing his teeth in a fashion that shows as if he were truly wild. The musher then said, "Ah, we can't trust this one." It causes Clay to become shocked and horrified while Flame smiles, especially when the musher says, "He's a wild dragon." The other man said, "See those teeth?" The musher said, 'He might turn on me."

"Riptide, Deathbringer, Qibli! Let's go!" The musher called as he gathered the team together. Flame looked at Clay frowning for a moment, but then the black and white Skywing then smiled as he snickered at Clay's misfortune. Then Flame turned and joined his musher. Clay can only watch as the team begins to head out. Clay sees Peril trying to come and speak to him, "Clay, I'm so sorry."

"Better not talk to me, Peril." Clay says out of anger and disappointment as he turns to leave, "I might turn on you."

Peril tries to get him to stop as he walks off, "Clay, wait. Clay!"

Not listening, Clay only proceeds to run, leaving Peril alone, sadly watching him go.

Around the time of night, the team had been brought together and waited outside the telegrapher's office. The telegrapher struck a match and lit up a lantern and said, "Yep. As long as there's hope for those kids, I'll keep this lit. It'll guide the team back."

The team had been strapped in and was waiting to get the mission underway. The dragons grunted as their musher said to them, "Easy, easy. Back, back."

As the crowd outside cheers and wishes them luck, inside the hospital Rosy and her parents watched as the team gets ready to head out.

The musher shouted the commands, "Qibli, Flame! Giddap! Yeah!" The dogs then took off into the frozen terrain. The crowd cheers as they leave out.

Clay watches the team rush off from the boat. Hearing them as they ran it made him feel deeply upset and crushed that he couldn't do what he was hoping to for Rosy. He looks down in shame and depression as he feels as if he has let her and Peril down.

The dragon sled team traveled far and long as they ran all the way to Nenana. They crossed over much terrain as they reached their destination. When they finally made it to Nenana, the train was there with the medicine in need. As the trains whistle blew, the trains crew began to load the crate full of medicine onto the sled. They had a hard time getting the crate getting onto the sled as the musher said, "Easy. Easy with that." As they started to tie the crate down the musher said, "Now, be sure you lash it down tight." When it was nice and secure, the musher then yelled, "Giddap, team! Giddap!" The men from the train wishes them luck as the team starts the journey home. The musher continues to give orders to the dragons, "Get on, boy! Go on, move along, move along!"

The team was starting to find the return trip difficult as the blizzard became worse. The team could barely walk as they trudged on against the harsh frozen winds. Grunting, Flame the others on, "Come on!"

"Flame!" Qibli yelled against the wind, "Maybe we should go back! We're lost!"

Growling, Flame turns and gets into Qibli's face, making snow fall into the other dragon's face and snarls, "I am not lost!"

"Lost?" Qibli nervously chuckled as he blinked the snow out of his eyes, "Did I say lost? No, you didn't let me finish. See, what I wanted to say was that I was gonna—"

"This way." Flame interrupted as he yanked the team forward. The team trudged forward.

Back in the telegrapher's office in Nome, a message was being sent out. The Gronkle, tried to use the dragon door, but became stuck. Trying to squeeze himself through, he couldn't free himself. He started rhythmically grunting to any dragon nearby its own message. Webs, an old Seawing, heard it from the boiler room and said, "It's terrible, my friends. Just terrible. Flame and his team are lost."

"No!" The dogs gasp and question Webs as a distraught Meatlug whines, "Flame!"

Webs then explains how the team is lost, "They missed their second check point. They're off the trail."

"Can't they send another team?" An Icewing suggests. Webs explains as Clay listens in from a window above, "It's too dangerous for us, and our men."

"What about them little ones?" The same Icewing asks. Webs hangs his head in sorrow as he said, "The medicine won't be here in time. We're going to lose them." Clay is shocked by this and horrified for Rosy and the other children. He looks to the hospital's direction and whispers, "Rosy."

In the hospital, the aforementioned little girl lay in her bed, wheezing and shuddering from the sickness. Her father tries to convince the doctor of something that might help Rosy, "Please, Doctor, it's the only medicine we got."

"Okay." The doctors says. Rosy's father goes to the door to let his wife and Peril in. Peril slowly walks to Rosy's bed, but picks up the pace to be by her girl's side. Rosy's wheezing continues as Peril stands up against the bed. Leaning closer the girl, Peril licks the side of her head to see if she can get a response. Rosy happily, and Peril back, as she looks to her dragon and said, "Peril?" but both of their smiles drops as Rosy falls into unconsciousness. Clay watches this from the window, but his attention is soon drawn to distant tapping sound. Moving off the log pile, he moves closer to the sound and finds himself at the woodman's shop. Clay moved to see what the man was doing as the tapping continued.

Mr. Johanssen had stopped tapping something with his hammer and lifted what he was working on off of the table with a grunt. Clay watches as the man puts it next to a set of similar looking things. He notices that they are coffins, one for a man, and three for what appeared to be children. Clay gasped at the sight, and then though Rosy, and that if she died she would be in one of those coffins. His eyes grew wide as he couldn't stand the thought as he looks back to the hospital and said, "Rosy."

With a new found resolve, Clay new exactly what he needed to do and left the woodshop with a plan.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Five: Going after the team**

After finding his resolve, Clay went back to the boat to tell Rodan what he was doing and where he was going and began to set out. Rodan; however, thought that this idea was the craziest he ever had. Rodan tried to talk the Mudwing out of it while walking in front of him, "Clay, please. Don't go crazy on me now." He slipped over the snow, "Oooh! This is foolishness." He commented as he climbed a wooden pole and onto what appeared to be a metal barrel and shouts, "You will die like a dragon." He heard what he said and tried to make amends, "What? No offense."

It turns out the metal barrel the pterosaur kaiju wasn't really that as he fell into it with a scream. Back on the boat, David and Thailog looks and sees Uncle Rodan and Clay are going somewhere.

"You will be frozen stiff by morning!" Rodan shouts as he slides through the tube as Clay slide across the ice. Rodan fall out of an opening and said while trying stand up, "When you are big, frozen stiff statue named Clay, don't come running to me!" He slips and falls back down. He was soon rammed into by the Goliath cubs as they came sliding down the ice. All three screamed, well two screamed as one whimpered, the entire slide. Thailog then whimpers something as they came to a stop.

"He said," David started to translated. Rodan was quick to finish as he said, "'where's he going?' He's going into freezing coldness to find a dragon he doesn't like… to bring medicine back to a town that doesn't like him!" He gasps as he despairingly said while hitting his head with his wing, "Oh, no! I'm beginning to understand the Goliath!" The pterosaur cries as the two cubs cheer.

They push him forward so that they could catch up to Clay. Rodan was seriously fed up with the antics and said, "Goliaths! Dragons!" He couldn't say more as Clay grabbed his head into his mouth. Rodan muffles as he shouted while the Mudwing pulls him along with him, "Clay! Clay! Clay!"

Clay brings the pterosaur to the hospital window with the barrel underneath it and jumps with Rodan still in his mouth. Putting him down right next to him, Clay lets Rodan's face go and looks in the window. Rodan looks up to him angrily and said, "No brains at all! Might as well be talking to shoe…" His anger subsides as he turns to see what Clay was seeing, "lace."

In the hospital, Rosy can be seen trying sleep, but was wheezing terribly from the sickness. Rodan starts to feel sad for the little girl and the others who were sick. Finding somewhat a new purpose in his life he said while turning to jump off the barrel, "So, let's go get the medicine."

Clay, not believing what Rodan just said as the pterosaur jumped off, turned and said, "Wait a minute. Now, you're coming?"

"Spending days in bitter cold, facing wild animals!" Rodan said as he kept walking, "Risking death from exposure!" He chuckles at this and said, "It's like holiday in old country."

Clay smiled at this and jumped off the barrel to join his friends. As they started to walk and find the missing team, David says, "Wow! Thailog, we're going on holiday!"

The four friends trekked all the way out of town. Towards parts unknown.

Later that night, Peril moved around the front of the hospital to the window where she could see Rosy. Jumping up onto the barrel, she looked into the window to see what was happening. Peril feels completely helpless as Rosy laid there, getting weaker by the hour. Feeling the worst for her girl, Peril starts to breathe heavily as she laid her head down on the window sill. But as she started to cry, a familiar scent came to her nose, making her pick her head up. Leaning her nose down to it, she takes in the scent, and then looking down to the ground beside the barrel, she sees tracks heading out of town. She knows who one set of the tracks belong to and says a single word, "Clay."

A great distance away from Nome, Clay scratched up a tree. Rodan sarcastically said, "Good, Clay! You took on the roughest, toughest, meanest tree in the forest! And you won. Hey."

"I'm marking the trail." Clay said as he walked off. David was starting to pick a fight with the tree, but when he heard what Clay said, he looked to Thailog and said, "Huh? He's marking our trail. He's very clever." David walked on as Thailog went up to the tree and licked it to add his part.

Rodan then sarcastically said as Clay scratched up another tree, "And here I've been dropping bread crumbs. Eesh!"

The four of them kept walking across the snow covered ground. As they walked, David thought to play a game, "I spy with my little eye…" his thing was obvious when he said, "something beginning with 'S'." His voice echoed across the land. They went very far that day as the sun soon set. A moose on a ridge started braying as they walked on. Clay sniffed for any signs of the team, and found a familiar scent, "Flame."

David started to sniff for what Clay was smelling, but his nose drifted to Thailog. And when he sniffed the bigger Goliath's scales he made the motions that Thailog smelled pretty bad. As Clay scratched up another tray, Rodan called to the brothers and shouted, "Hey! Goliaths!"

"Come on." Clay said as David kind of crashed into Rodan, "Flame and his team passed this way."

"Boy is he lost." Rodan commented on where they were.

Speaking of the lost team, they were still fighting through the blizzard. The dragons could hear the musher over the high winds, "Pull! Pull!"

Flame tried to see where they should go, but the rushing snow was making it hard to see. Grunting and panting, Flame tried to think of something. Qibli then shouted, "Flame! We're going in circles!"

"What!" The Skywing snarls. Qibli nervously laughs as he shudders and tried to think of what to say, "Circles is a good thing. I mean, they're— they're circular." He spun around getting himself tangled as Riptide tried to say something supportive, "Yeah, circles."

Flame starts to panic, but his ego and anger came to the surface as he shouted, "I know what I'm doing! It's—" He tried to guess where to go as he picked the way, "It's… this way! Come on!" Flame pulled the team forward, but in reality he didn't know as the team starts running. Their musher tries to get them to stop, "Whoa, team!" He shouts to everyone and then to Flame as the black and white Skywing looked for a sign to follow, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, Flame!"

The team ran right off a steep hill covered in ice. All dragons and the humans screamed as they slid down. To make mattes worse, the musher hit a few rocks on the way down. They all try to stop themselves, but it proved to be useless as they headed straight for pile of snow. Flame closed his eyes before they crashed. All the dragons hit the ground and rolled. The musher unfortunately flies off the sled and hits his head, knocking him unconscious.

The dragons start to pick themselves up with groans from aches, and sputters from having snow in their mouths. Flame gets up and shakes the snow off of him.

"Oh, I hit my head on somethin'." Riptide complained as he rose out of the snow. Deathbringer came up a second later and said, "Yeah, my head!"

"Looks like he's hurt bad, Flame." A Rainwing that inspected the musher said. Qibli looks at the leader and asks, "Wh-what are we gonna do now, Flame?"

But the lead dragon didn't say anything as he just sat there, panting and terrified. The howling wind the only sound made as the lantern shown on the mountain side. The team had gotten themselves lost in the mountains.

The next day, a squirrel climbs a tree as Clay, Rodan, David and Thailog walked through another forest. As Clay walked up to a tree, a sudden snow ball surprised him as it smacked the tree in front of him. But he smiled in the direction it came from. The Mudwing lightly shook his head at their antics as the Goliath brothers were having a little snow ball fight as they shouted and laughed, "Oh, yes! (Whimpers)"

A flying snow ball spooks Rodan a little as it sails right past him. He dodges a few other snowballs aimed for him. Turning around and tried to get them to stop, "Shhh—" but was had his eyes closed and was smacked into the face with one and left an impression in the snow, "Ugh!"

"Brilliant! Right on the beak. What a bull's-eye!" David said to his brother. They celebrated with a few paw-fives and then bumped their rears together. There fun was interrupted when Rodan shouts, "That did it! Who did that?"

The brothers looked over to see Rodan sticking his upper body out of the impression and using his fingers to tap the snow. Both Goliath's didn't want to get into trouble, but David ran behind the bigger Goliath and said, "I-It was him."

But Thailog defended himself from the lie, but it only came out in whimpers. As he walked, Clay smiles at them, but a distant growling makes him gasp and stop for a moment. He raises his ear flaps to listen for the sound's location. Though the growling continues, Clay couldn't see what it was coming from. Clay decides to keep the group moving, "Guys, I think—" He gasped when he saw something move behind a tree. Feeling a little frightened for their safety, he said before moving, "I think we should keep moving."

"Is that your answer to all problems? Motion?" Rodan questions as he got out of the snow. He pops his back and lets out a relieved sigh, then squawks as he follows Clay again. David and Thailog start to gather snow into their arms as they plan to pelt Rodan with it. But they look up when Clay stops to look back and tells them, "David, Thailog, come on! Let's get going."

"Come on, boys. Let's go, boys. Faster, boys." Rodan mutters as he walks and dusts himself off. Then he shouts to a moving Clay, "Easy to say for a guy with four legs!"

As his back was turned, one of the brothers threw another snowball at him, knocking him flat on his face. But as he lifted his face out of the snow spitting, he angrily said, "Okay, that's it!" He sits up and acts like he's rolling up sleeves as says, "It's time for pterosaur kaiju to kick a little Goliath butt!"

But David and Thailog start to shake in fear of something as the snow in their hands fall out. Rodan then smiles as he sees them shuddering in fear, "Aha! Finally!

"You're all done, 'cause Rodan is making an impression!" He says as he misinterprets the cause for their fear as David points to something behind him. Letting them shake in their fear, he starts to walk off, but collides with something furry. He questions thinking that it's Clay, "Now what" But he then notice that the scales are much darker shade of brown and pushes down to feel the build of the creature. The sound sounds different than that of a dragon, making Rodan start to worry as the beast behind him growls. Slowly looking up and lets out an audible gulp, he finds himself looking into the face of a Vaxsaurian as it continues to growl down at the small pterosaur. His beak opens wide in fear as he continues to stare. The Vaxsaurian the raises its clawed hand to strike. Clay looks back and gasps when he sees the Vaxsaurian about to attack Rodan who was now backing away from it. Rodan screams as he tries to run, but the snow makes it difficult as he gets swatted on his rump. The blow causes him to fly into a hollow tree stump in a huge pile of snow. The Vaxsaurian then swats the tree stump with the pterosaur still inside. The stump flies over to the Goliath cubs, making them scream as it then forms a cage over them, trapping them at the Vaxsaurian's mercy.

Clay runs to help his friends and leaps into the air with a growl. But the Vaxsaurian sees him coming and swats him away. Landing in the snow with a grunt, he sees that the dino-alien went after his friends again. Quickly getting up he ran at the beast again. The Vaxsaurian stomped closer to the trapped trio as David screamed, "Help!"

Just as the dino-alien raised its clawed hand again, something caused it to roar in pain. It's pain was caused by Clay as he bit down on the back of the Vax's leg. Clay pulls the leg in one direction, hoping to topple the monster. It works a little too well, for as the Vaxsaurian fell, he was kicked up into the air. The Mudwing yelled as he flew through the air and touched his snout against the dino-alien's. As he bounced a little, the Vaxsaurian used the back of its hand to push Clay off of him, and down on his back in the snow. Clay struggled to get out of the Vax's grasp as it held him down and prepared to attack. With two pushes deeper into the snow, it pushes the breath out of Clay's lungs, making him disoriented. Once again, the Vaxsaurian raises its clawed hand to strike, but at the last second a screaming Peril jumps at the Vaxsaurian. She bites at the hand poised to strike, making the Vaxsaurian yowl in pain. She kicks it once in the jaw. Clay, still disoriented said, "Peril?"

The dino-alien retaliated by throwing Peril a small distance into the snow. She grunts and groans as she rolls and skips in the cold powder. Just as the Vaxsaurian was bout to attack downed Clay again, Peril once again comes to his rescue as she runs and jumps onto its face. As she bit it on the nose, it gets up and releases Clay, allowing him to breath again. The bear stomps backwards to the trapped trio's wooden cage, making them very scared about it. Thinking that they Vaxsaurian was going to step on them, two of them dive down into the snow to avoid watching. Luckily for them, they weren't crushed. As Peril hangs on for dear life, the Vax swats her off of its face. Peril screams as she hits the wooden cage with a grunt. The now free Goliath cubs just sit there as a now freed Rodan falls on Thailog's head, which bonks down onto David's head.

The Vaxsaurian turns attention back to Clay as the Mudwing scoots back away from it in the snow. But he soon scoots up against a wall of branches as the Vax gets down on all fours and stomps to the dragon. The dino-alien roars into his face as it gets closer. As he continues to scoot backwards, the plant behind him leans a little. Deciding to use the plant as part of his escape, Clay lets the Vaxsaurian get a little closer before moving out of the way. As the limb comes forth, it smacks and shatters against the Vaxsaurian's face, making it roar in pain.

Clay screams as he starts sliding and rolling down a big hill. He continues to roll as he hits a snow covered frozen lake before sliding out a bit. Lifting his head up he looks in horror as the Vaxsaurian starts to follow him down the hill. Roaring as it walked, the dino-alien pushes a tree down. Though he doesn't know it at first Clay backs up on the snow covered lake, but stops as his back foot breaks through it. His attention turned back to the incoming Vaxsaurian. The beast walks out onto the frozen lake, not paying the ice any mind. Clay's friends run to the edge of the hill. Rodan shouts, "Clay!"

The Vax stands on its hindlegs again as it stomps towards the dragon. The stomp makes Clay jump in the air with a gasp and cracks the ice a lot. Clay runs when the dino-alien comes closer. It watches him run and keeps following. But a step on the cracking ice makes it step into the cold water. The Vaxsaurian quickly pulls it's leg out. Clay runs to another spot on the ice and stops. A crack trails itself between his legs, making him look down. He looks back in horror as the Vaxsaurian still comes. The beast takes another step on the frail ice, a mistake on its part as its foot goes under the ice, dragging it down into the water. The Vaxsaurian tries to climb out of the freezing water, but its attempts cause the ice to break more and sends the creature plunging into the ice. But as fate would have it, the broken ice cracks itself around Clay in a jagged circle. Clay could only watch as the crack went around him and the ice patch he stood on started to tilt. As one end submerged into the water, he jumped and grabbed onto the high piece. But he lost his grip and fell into the water. Clay's friends tried to run to his rescue, all shouting, "Clay!"

Clay screamed as the ice started to collapse on top of him. His friends kept running and shouted, "Clay! No!"

They all watch in horror as the ice completely covers Clay.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Six: Going to Find the Team Alone**

"No!" Peril and Rodan screamed as the ice covered itself back up. Both dragon and pterosaur kaiju run to the shore, not knowing what to do. But apparently, the Goliath brothers did as David yelled, "Geronimo!"

Peril and Rodan watched as David and Thailog, the latter imitating a horn, jumped and broke through the ice. The Goliath brothers found swimming difficult as they fought against the current. Peril ran over to the hole that they made and shouted, "David! Thailog!"

"They cannot swim!" The Russian pterosaur shouted as the ice cracked underneath. The ice continues to break as Peril gasps at the revelation, "What?! Goliaths who can't swim!"

As David and Thailog tumbled and drifted along with the current, David saw a familiar sight. Catching his brother, David started to point to what he saw. But when he saw which end he had, David was repulsed as he kicked his brother up right on his behind. With Thailog now turned up right, David gripped the larger Goliath's shoulders and pointed again. Not far from them, Clay was upside down gripping the ice with his claws as he tried to suck in air through the ice.

Peril runs over to where Clay was and shoves the ice out of the way as Clay started to run out of air. She yells to Rodan, "He's drowning!" Clay drifts along with the current, making Peril more distraught, "No!"

Turning back to Rodan, who had his head in the water, ran over to him and asked, "Well?"

Rodan pulls his head out of the water, now comically covered in icy spikes. He lets out a big sneeze that blows the spikes off of his cranium and then said, "I don't see them."

The two start to search for signs for the three, but the frozen lake was really quiet. Getting more and more worried Peril asks Rodan as he puts a wing in his toothed beak, "Where are they?"

Just as they begin to fear the worst, a cracking sound comes somewhere on the ice. They look behind them to see that the ice is starting to crack from something. Breaking through the ice, David and Thailog brought up an unconscious Clay and pulled him out of the ice.

"Clay! David! Thailog!" Relieved to see all three of them the two run. Peril is able to run while Rodan comes a moment later. The brothers bring Clay to the shore as Thailog sets the unconscious dragon down on a log and starts shaking Clay to get the water out and wake him as David shakes himself off and said, "Ohh, cold!"

"Oh! Oooh! Oooh!" Rodan said as he ran to them. As he ran to them, his foot trips on a raised piece of ice and falls on his face. His momentum caused him to slide across the ice really fast. He went so fast that he passed Peril and towards the three as Thailog kept shaking Clay. Rodan slides up a piece of ice like a ramp and screams as he is sent flying. He flew right into David, he was sent crashing into Thailog who fell on top of Clay. This causes the water Clay swallowed to be comically spit out as his eyes grew wide. After pushing Thailog away, Rodan runs up to the now somewhat revived dragon, grabs him by the face and starts slapping Clay to wake him while saying, "Come to life, come to life. Breathe! Come on, breathe."

"Oh, is he gonna be okay? 'Cause he's not breathing." David said as he looked over and then climbed over his brother. He then said as he made it to the other side, "He doesn't look very well. Stop hitting him, Uncle Rodan."

Clay gasps for breath as he starts to wake up. This relieves Rodan of his fears as he said as he brought Clay's face closer, "Clay, I was so scared. I got people bumps." His face showed how scared he was.

Clay coughed as he started to move around. Sitting up he said before coughing, "Rodan…" He got off the log and onto the ground said, "I know you think this trip is crazy, but…" Clay laid himself on the ground and then said with a smile though he shivered, "I'm glad you came."

"Who else should you bring on a wild goose chase but a kaiju, huh?" Rodan joked and then laughed at himself. Peril comes up behind Clay, making him sit up and ask, "Are you okay, Per—" right as she asked him, "Are you okay?"

They laugh at themselves as Peril said to assure him, "I'm fine."

She then placed herself over Clay and laid them down so she could share her body heat with him. This surprised Clay as he stayed down, but he didn't fight it. Peril then said, "Look, a message came through. We have to take the mountain trail."

"But if we take Eagle Pass, it'll save us half a day." Clay told her as he shivered. She hated to tell him but she said, "It's blocked. The mountain trail is dangerous, but we can do it."

"I'm beginning to see there isn't anything you can't do." Clay said with a smile as he looks up to her. She smiled back as she found his compliment sweet. Rodan sees the romance between them and said, "I'm seeking a few things too, and it's making the ice melt."

His joy was taken away as Thailog showered him with water. This makes Rodan angry and comically say as the Goliath finish, "I hate Goliaths!"

"You two guys ought to learn how to swim someday." Clay commented as he sat up looking away and now is no longer shivering. He smiles as he said looking at them both, "You'd be very good at it."

This causes both Goliaths to look at him in confusion as Thailog whimpers to his brother about them swimming. David was quick to answer as he slapped his brother's paws away, "Yes, of course we were. We were in the water. We were moving. We got wet, didn't we? We-" David then realized that he and Thailog had done what they had feared the most. With a gasp he said as he brother smiled, "Thailog, we were swimming!"

Clay laughs at their surprise as Peril started to walk off. She took a step and fell on one leg with a gasp and said, "Clumsy."

"No, you're not. You're hurt." Clay said as he walked over to her. She tried to push it off, "No, I'm fine."

He stays with her as they walk back over to the others. But after a couple of steps she falls down again with a yelp of pain, startling him. He turned to her as she panted from falling. Peril faced facts as she said, "Oh, maybe I'm not so fine.

"You should all go ahead without me." She said. Clay, not wanting to do such a thing to one of his friends said, "Peril."

"No, no." She shook her head as she said, "I'll be slowing everyone down." Then she hates it as she points out, "And Rosy can't hold out much longer."

Clay, seeing she was right that there was no other choice but to go on without her, did something to make sure Peril got home safe. He turned to the Goliaths and ordered, "David, you and Thailog carry Peril back to town on this." He then grabbed a broken branch and dragged it over to Peril. Rodan then said as Clay passed him, "And this time, don't take time out for a swim." He chuckles at his little joke.

"You can make sure of that, Rodan. You're gonna lead them home." This stops the pterosaur kaiju in his tracks. He looks back to Clay as he helps Peril on the branch. Rodan groans at this, "Aye."

"Just follow my marks." Clay instructed. This surprises Peril as she asks him, "You're going on alone?"

"Won't be the first time." He informs her.

"Oh, here. I'm afraid it won't keep you very warm." Seeing as there was nothing she could do to stop him, she maneuvers her bandana off her neck to the ground. Picking it up in her teeth, she puts it over Clay's neck. To make her feel better he said, "Yeah, it will."

Hoping to see him come back safely, Peril starts to rub her head against Clay's neck. She moves her head back to look at him before they rub their heads against each other. Their moment was cut short when Thailog started to whimper in sadness. David went to comfort his brother, "Well, of course Clay will come back." Gesturing to the brave Mudwing he says, "He's Clay, isn't he?" This makes Thailog start to cry.

"Hey, I'm coming back… with the medicine." He looks to Peril and said, "I promise, Peril." Clay smiled before running to find the trail and then shouted, "Go ahead, guys. Take her home."

Rodan calls out to him and said, "Clay, I do not like leaving you out here alone." The pterosaur walked up and then said while pulling Clay forward after wrapping his wing around the dragon, "Who's going to tell you how cold you are?"

Clay, even though he was touched that Rodan cared for him, smiled as he re-moved himself from under the wing and pushed him back toward the others. His smile faded as he told him, "Rodan… they need you even more than I do."

Seeing how dead set Clay was to having him guide the three back to Nome, the pterosaur kaiju sighed as he gave in. Rodan started to walk back to the three, but quickly turned around to give the dragon a piece of advice, "Let me tell you something, Clay."

Touching Clay's chest gently with a wing he said, "A dragon who is acts normal cannot make this journey alone." This kind felt offensive to Clay as his friend started to walk away. But the pterosaur wasn't finished as turned his head and he said, "But maybe a wild one can."

Clay didn't feel any different as he watched Rodan continue walking away. He groans as he tried to take his words to heart, but didn't think much of it at the time. He then watches as Rodan takes charge of the two Goliaths and their patient. The pterosaur kaiju then said in a military fashion, "Right! You two balls of scales! Let's move!"

Clay ran along the shore of the lake to find the trail as Rodan made them move, "Back, two, three, four! Back, two, three, four!"

In the telegrapher's office, he received a message over the telegraph and said aloud as his Gronkle listened in, "Nome. Stop. Cannot send more antitoxin." Both the man and dragon becomes less hopeful as he keeps listening, "Stop. Weather too severe. Stop. Lost sled team—only hope. Stop. Our prayers are with them. Anchorage. Stop." Feeling sorry for the sick kids, the Gronkle laid against his master's feet in despair.

Clay continued to follow the teams trail through the forest. But another blizzard was starting to come through. But it didn't stop him as he sniffed for the team's scent. Getting a whiff, he then climbs up against a tree trunk and then leaves his mark. After leaving the scratched to know where to go, he then took off again.

He walked over much territory as he continued his search. Climbing a hill, he slid down the other side. Clay fought against the rushing snow and winds as he carried on. The high winds and the deep snow made it more and more difficult as he walked. But soon in small clearing, he caught the scent of something. Taking in deep sniffs, he recognized it as, "Flame."

Realizing he was close, Clay ran as he followed it. Coming to a nearby drop he looked down and saw the sled team, nearly half buried in the snow. Smiling that he found them Clay started rush down the hill. But it was a mistake on his part as he gasped and found that the hill was slick on the way down. Sliding a little off balance at first, he was able to steady himself as he came down upon the team.

"Clay!" Qibli said as he saw the coming Mudwing. This got the other dragons attention as some unburied themselves from the snow. They saw him and Riptide asked, "Is that Clay?"

"Clay, how did you find us?" Deathbringer asked. Clay moved closer and asked, "Is anyone hurt?"

"Everyone is fine." Flame said from the side hunched over. Qibli somewhat dis-proved this when he said, "Yeah, but our musher hit his head… and he didn't get up." Qibli moved closer to the musher to check on him as another dragon said, "And he's not movin'."

"All right, follow me." Clay said as he took the harness into his mouth, "I can lead you home."

"We don't need your help!" Flame growled as he stepped onto the harness, stopping Clay in his tracks. Qibli tries to be brave and say, "M-Maybe we should listen to him."

It doesn't do anything but make Flame snarl at him. This makes the Sandwing crouch down in fear. Riptide then asks Clay, "Well, how would yous get us home, then?"

"Well, I," Clay explained his plan to get back, "I marked the trail. Like this."

He showed them his method by walking up to a dead tree and started scratching it, creating his mark. Qibli actually thought that this was a really good idea, "Oh, yeah."

"I'll get us back." Flame snarled as he crushed the dead tree. Growling at the Mudwing and moving closer to Clay, he said, "I'm the lead dragon. I'm in charge."

Clay saw that Flame wouldn't listen to him and decided to at least do something to help the kids. He said, "Then let me take back the medicine." He informed them as he moved towards the sled, "They're getting sicker."

With a snarl and jumping in front of Clay, surprising everyone, Flame said, "Touch that box… and I'll tear you apart."

"Two bones says Flame takes him." Riptide bets Deathbringer. The Nightwing takes him up on that bet and said, "You're on."

The other dragons chattered amongst themselves as they formed a half-circle around Clay and Flame. Though he was surrounded, Clay made his point to the black and white Skywing, "Flame, I'm not leaving without that medicine."

As Clay walked past him, Flame shoved the Mudwing from the side with his forepaws. Tumbling in the snow, Flame said to him, "Who do you think you are?"

Clay gets back up and takes in deep breaths. From the side, Riptide spectates with a whisper, "Hey, this is gonna be good."

"Since—" Clay started to say as he gathered himself. He then said, "Since when do you need a pedigree to help someone?"

Once again walking past Flame, Clay made his way to the crate. Snarling, Flame jumps in front of the Mudwing to stop him. Clay tries to talk reason to Flame, "Flame, let me help you."

Flame says nothing as he gives Clay a crazy-eyed stare. A dragon comments on this, "Look at his eyes! Look at his eyes!"

Clay walked around the mad Skywing to the crate, but Flame snarled as he headbutted Clay in the side. Clay groaned as he rolled in the snow. Deathbringer winced and commented on the blow, "He'll feel that tomorrow."

"I think he is feeling it now." Riptide corrected. Deathbringer looked to Clay and said, "Ouch."

Clay, though sore from the rough housing, gets back on his feet. He staggers when he stands. Trying to do this peacefully he said as he came forth, "I don't want to fight."

Flame, growing angry at not making the Mudwing run away or trying to put up a fight, he snarled as he grabbed the scales on Clay's back and threw him to the ground. This shocks all the other dragons as Deathbringer said, "Oh, that can't be legal!"

"Yeah!" Riptide agreed. Flame felt satisfied as Clay didn't get up for a moment. But when he did with a groan, Clay kept walking towards the medicine and tried to grab it. Flame jumped in the way again, this time knocking against the sled, turning it over and making the box hit the ground on its side. Clay and the other dragons gasp at this. Riptide fearing for what could happen to the medicine and said, "Hey, that stuff is fragile there!"

"What's with Flame?" Qibli interjected and came between the Seawing and Night-wing, but it wasn't stopped as the other dragons kind of silently agreed with him, "All Clay wants to do is help."

Clay, not having taken his eyes off the over turned cargo, was caught off guard and screamed as Flame took his back leg in his jaws and threw him. The throw sends Clay back first into a rock. He slowly slides down the rock and lays on the ground unmoving.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Seven: Trying to Get Back Home**

As Clay lay there in the snow, the dragons of the team looks to Flame in horror as he snickered over his apparent victory. Qibli looks back over to Clay, gasps at the sight and said, "Look!"

All attention was focused on Clay as he struggled with a grunt to get up. Flame, surprised and confused to how the Mudwing could still get up, then snarled in anger. With a lunge he went to attack Clay, but all he managed to do was catch Peril's bandana in his teeth as he nearly swung himself near a cliff. As Flame pull-ed on the bandana, Clay resisted the pull as best as he could. But as Flame tried to bring Clay closer, the knot of the bandana started to come loose. It untied and then standing on his back legs with the bandana still in his mouth for a moment, Flame fell backwards over the cliff with a scream. Clay could only go to the edge and watch as Flame tumbled and hit the rocky surface as he fell. He kept tumbling and hitting the rocks until he landed at the bottom of the cliff with a groan.

Somewhat relieved the Skywing still lived, Clay took a few deep breaths from the beating. Turning back to the dragon sled team he walked over as they had already turned the sled back over and were now putting the musher on the bed. Clay came up to the musher and nudged his hand in with the rest of him as the man said with a groan, "Good boy."

Looking at the dragon team, he noticed that they were all waiting for him. He walked up to Qibli, who held the lead harness for him. Clay was surprised as he stepped into it. It felt weird, but it also felt like a dream come true to him. Though he didn't make the team at first, Clay was now on a dragon sled team.

Flame had made it back to the top of the cliff, exhausted from the climb. Panting he looked to see Clay and his team running up the slope as the musher yells to the grunting dragon. Not wanting the wild low-born to steal his glory, Flame says to him from afar, "Go ahead, low-born. You'll never get home." Remembering Clay's plan to get back he said, "I'll make sure of that."

He found Clay's mark and decided to put his own plan into action. Laughing crazily he said, "I'll show him." Running in a certain direction he questioned, "Why not this way?" Jumping up against a tree he started scratching the wood, 'How about over here?" Snickering to himself he said, "No, that's the wrong way."

Soon, Clay and the other dragons came across the mixed trails. Clay looked around and was gasped in shock, "Oh, no."

Looking around, he could to see that all trees had been scratched up. There was no way of telling which way to go. Qibli then asked, "Which way, Clay? Which way? Which way?"

"Uh…" Trying to think of which way he came, he randomly picked a direction, "this way." The team took off into that particular direction.

Time passed as the team kept running, but it would all be for not. They soon came back to the area where Clay had gotten lost. Clay, sees the tree stump, and stops with a skid. But this makes all the other dragons crash into him. This causes the team to question him as Deathbringer questions, "Clay, why are you taking us in circles?"

"I'm not! I mean… I don't know." Clay said as he was confused. He then realized the one behind this, "It's Flame."

"Maybe we was better off with him there." Riptide said, second guessing their choice to the other dragons. Clay, not wanting to lose their faith in him, nor waste any more time. He said, "No! Come on! Mush!"

He pulled the team forward, making them run through the forest. But without a clear direction they were running blindly to who knows where. Qibli tried to make Clay stop, "Clay, slow down!" His open mouth got him a stick in his mouth. Clay tried to remember which way he came, but with so many marks, he couldn't tell where he was going. Clay started to run faster, making the other dragons yell, "Hey, hey! You're goin' too fast!" Not knowing what to do scared Clay so much that he didn't see that they were coming towards the edge of a cliff. Qibli tried to say, 'The moun—the moun—"

They all screamed as they tried to stop themselves from going over. The musher fell out of the sled as they kept sliding to the edge. Clay used all of his strength to make the team slow down. They were able to stop themselves as the sled stopped itself against a rock. Everyone panted from the experience. But their troubles weren't over yet as someone shouted, "Look out!"

Ropes broke and the crate started to come loose from the sled. Clay gasped and quickly slipped out of the harness and then jumped to catch a rope with his mouth. Holding on tight, he kept the crate and himself from falling over the edge. Qibli then said, "All right! Good catch, Clay!"

The dragons smiled at the saved cargo, but all happiness faded as the sound cracking could be heard in the rock. The ground from underneath Clay started to give way, making dragon and crate fall over the cliffside. Clay screamed as the other dragons could only watch in horror as he fell down the mountain. Falling and screaming into a tumble of snow, his world turned black.

Back in Nome Rodan, David and Thailog looked into the window in the boiler room as a dragon questioned about Clay in his search, "I don't get it. How could Clay hope to find Flame and his team? They were off the trail."

"Well, he's tracking them." Peril told them. A skeptical dragon thought it was ridiculous and commented, "That low-born! Tracking a championship team in a blizzard!"

This makes all the dragons who didn't believe in Clay laugh. The only dragons not laughing were Peril and Webs as the latter looked to former's angry face. The door bursts open, and everyone gasps as they look to see who opened it as a draconic shape walks in. Peril, hopeful that it was Clay asked, "Clay?"

"Flame! Flame's alive!" Someone said happily. She became disappointed at who it actually was. The other dragons; however were grateful as one said, "You're back! Where ya been? Are you okay?"

One of the dragons rolled a bone his way, which he leapt at and tore into hungrily. Webs asked more important question, "Flame, where are the others?"

"Yeah, what happened to the others?" Someone else asks. Taking a moment, Flame then starts to act all depressed after getting his breath back, and then said, "Well, one by one they fell." He sniffled and walked as he said, "Frozen, barely alive." Shaking the snow and ice off of him, which made a few dragons duck from the shards. Flame then continued his 'tale of woe', "I-I pulled four onto the sled. Three more on my back." He counted or flexed with his claws and said, "And I, I walked… and I walked…" He sat down depressed as he said, "but it was just—it was too late."

The other dragons gasped at this as Flame said, "They wer—" He feel onto the ground.

"What about the medicine?" Webs asked. Everyone wanted to know about that part too. Flame continued to tell his tale of laws, "Uh… I-I went on… dragging the medicine alone. All alone." He stood before a furnace before taking a more serious expression, sniffed and said, "And then suddenly… that low-born appeared. Clay." Making him sound as if he were a glory hound, Flame said, "He demanded I let _him_ take the medicine." A sad expression etches itself on the Skywing's face as he looked to Peril and said, "You know, he, he just wanted so much… to be a hero in your eyes." Peril looked down, knowing whether or not to believe Flame. "And he grabbed the crate…" he sniffled when he said, "but he couldn't handle it. He-He couldn't see the patch of ice, the snow, the wind, and then the log. And the cliff! Well, he just didn't have a chance." He hung his head in depression. Starting to sob he said, "It's—I'm sorry. And then…" Taking a deep breath, he pulled something out of his collar. Peril gasps at the item, "My ban-dana." Peril hung her head down and closed her eyes in sadness.

"He made me promise to take care of you, Peril." Flame said. Peril lifted her head and opened her eyes and thought, knowing that Clay would never say anything like that, she narrowed her eyes as she realized that Flame was lying, "You're lying."

Everyone gasps in shock at the accusation as Flame's eyes dart from left to right. Getting up, Peril tells them, "Flame's lying. Clay's alive." The other dragons murmured to themselves as she bent down to pick up her bandana, and said, "He's coming home." She then ran out of the room. Flame makes up the excuse that the grief had given Peril false hope and said, "Uh… well, you know, she needs a little time." He nods with what he said as the other dragons started murmur in agreement with him.

Outside the telegrapher's office, both the telegrapher and his Gronkle step outside. The man stepped toward the lantern and rubbed the back of his neck, knowing that even though he didn't like doing this, the situation didn't look very hopeful. With a sigh, the telegrapher reaches up and pulls the lantern off of its hook.

From the window of the hospital, Rosy's mother gasps when the telegrapher turns out the lantern. Putting her hands up to her face, her husband puts his arms around her as she begins to cry over the possibility of the worst happening to her daughter. Rosy could only just lay there in the bed, wheezing as her clock seemed to be ticking down.

On the outside of Nome, as the town lights flickered out for the night, Peril came dragging a lantern through the snow and freezing winds. She dragged it to the top of a tall hill. Remembering what Clay taught her the other night as she set the lantern down, she said, "Sun." Carefully moving some broken bottles to the right position she then said, "Ice caps." Feeling that it was just right, Peril moved to the side to let the light from the lantern hit the bottles and created a much bigger version of Clay's Northern Lights. The light projected itself on a taller hill next to Peril's. Though she found it beautiful, she knew she couldn't have done it without him as she looked out beyond Nome and whispered, "Clay."

Speaking of our favorite Mudwing, he had awakened and was starting to dig himself out of the snow. After a few pushes with his head, he emerges his upper body with a grunt. Clay keeps grunting when he started to pull the rest of him out as the sun shone down on him and fell onto his belly. Thinking that he had failed everyone in Nome, Clay feels at his lowest and depressingly said, "Rosy." Then covering himself with a paw, he starts to sniffle in sadness.

Laying there, feeling sorry for himself and those that he had let down, he breathes heavily with what he deems as his greatest failure. Soon he feels a presence before him, removes his paw from his face and looks to see someone standing before him. Looking up to the being's face, he finds himself staring into the eyes of a pure white wild Mudwing. The white Mudwing then takes a deep breath and lets out a mighty roar. It looks back down at Clay, waiting for his response. But Clay, ignoring his wild side, only looks away from the white Mudwing. It looks to him as he just lays there depressed and unresponsive. When he didn't give it a sign, the white Mudwing turns and leaves him alone.

Clay suddenly sees something nearby. Lifting his head he sees that the crate of medicine hadn't been buried in the snow. He lifts his head higher to look at the climb back to the sled. Just as he's starting to think that it's impossible, Rodan's advice comes back into his mind, _"Let me tell you something, Clay. A normal dragon cannot make this journey alone."_ Clay starts to know the truth that acting like all the other dragons will only get him so far. _"But maybe a wild dragon can."_ But his confidence builds when he remembers that though he's just a Mudwing, they're still considered to be strong and true to themselves. With a new-found determination, he looks to where the white Mudwing disappeared to. Clay looked down at the tracks that it left behind. He shakily gets up on his feet and puts his talons in one of the prints. Seeing as how they fit, he decides to truly accept his heritage and takes a deep breath. Lifting his head high, Clay lets his own roar ring out to the world! The sound of his roar as he kept it up brings the white Mudwing back to him. The white Mudwing comes closer to Clay and starts to roar harmoniously with him. Both dragons roared their hearts out as Clay knew he was always meant to be: a wild, yet heroic dragon.

Back at the top of the cliff, the dragons had gathered around and shivered as they started to become buried in snow again. The roaring could be heard from the top making them all gasp in wonder. Riptide then comments, "Oh, great. Things are not bad enough. Now we got wild dragons."

"Wild Dragons!" The other dragons cried as they huddled together and whimpered in fear. Deathbringer looks over the side of the cliff and a smile comes onto his face as he shouted, "Hey, hey! Hey, over here!"

"What? What is it?" Riptide asks as he looks over too. All the dragons at the top of the cliff look and gasp in amazement at the sight. Clay was steadily bringing up the crate of medicine up the walkable parts of the cliff face. This surprises everyone, "Clay?" "A-And he's got the medicine."

Riptide cheers Clay on as the Mudwing keeps pulling, "Come on, Clay! Yous can make it! "

As Clay struggled with the cargo, a patch of snow falls out from underneath his foot, making him slip. He falls with a grunt as the team from above gasps in anticipation. Deathbringer starts to compliment with Riptide in full agreement, "That's the most amazing-, the most fantastic-, that is the most incredible-, that's the most phenomenal-, I-I never—"

"That's good!" Qibli interjects. This annoys both dragons as Deathbringer brings his rump over Qibli's head and sits down on him, the yellow dragon going, "Oh!"

"Hey, he has got the feet of a wild dragon there." Riptide said. The team keeps cheering him on as Clay keeps climbing, "Clay, come on. That's it. Come on Clay. Keep trying. Come on. That's it. You got it." Then all of the dragons started chattering at once. The chattering continues as Clay slowly makes his way up. As Clay reached the top, the dragons kept cheering and he pulls the crate back onto the cliff. When the box is on the ground, the dragons cheered even more as Riptide and Deathbringer took the ropes into their jaws and pulled the box back over to the sled. Every dragon on the team cheered at Clay's heroics and shouted with joy.

Soon, the team was harnessed back up and the crate and musher were back on the sled. Clay and the team started to run through the forest again. They crossed a lot of ground as they pulled the sled along. They ran over hills of snow and through plains covered in it. They traveled a great distance as they came into another forest.

The team came to another fork in the road. Like the last forest, Flame had already been there and had scratched up nearly every tree. The dragons panted and waited as Clay looked around to see what was familiar. Clay looked from tree to tree thinking. The other dragons waited for him to make a choice as their tongues hung out of their mouths. Knowing better this time, Clay took a different approach to the situation and started sniffing for the right trail. He found it and with a motion of his head he led the team in that direction. The team took off with Clay as he followed his trail, not wasting a second.

The team had come across a narrow ice bride across two cliffs. Slowly and carefully, they made their way across. The ice starts to break under their weight, making the other's gasp with worry. As they continue to cross, the bridge continues to crack. Clay hears the cracks starting to get worse and turns to the others and shouts, "Mush!"

Not needing to be told twice, the team picked up the pace as the ice started to collapse. The team made it to the other side of a steep hill just as the rest of the bridge went. But the weight of the sled started to drag them back. All the dragons yell in fear and started clawing at the ground to find a hold, but they kept being pulled by the sled. Seeing a plant, Clay catches it with his jaws and tries to use it as an anchor. The plant manages to hold, allowing the Clay and the team to pull themselves and the sled up the hill. But as Clay climbed up the steep hill, he pushed the roots of the plant back into the ground. All the dragons grunted as they pulled the sled up the hill. After climbing and pulling, the dragon sled team was able to bring the sled away from the cliff's edge.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See all of you next time.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own either the characters from the movie Balto or the novel series The Wings of Fire, only the story. Balto and the characters of the franchise belongs to Universal Studios and The Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland.. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something. The dragons in this production will be wingless and the size of humans.

 **Chapter Eight: The Home Stretch**

Smiling at a job well done, Clay starts to lead again. Unknowingly, his tail brushes up against Qibli's snout, tickling it a little. Going through the motions of the sneeze, he lets out a big one. The sound echoes as someone said, "Gesundheit."

Unfortunately, the echo causes the snow on top of a nearby mountain to start an avalanche. The avalanche travels fast downward, crushing trees as the snow rolled. And in its way was the dragon sled team. Clay stopped when he heard the sound of rushing snow. Looking back he gasped in horror as the avalanche hurtled toward them. He gives look that is both annoyed, but also tells them to start running again. The team runs as fast they can as the snow starts to fill the valley. Not long after, the avalanche starts to gain on the sled team. Clay looks back and sees how close the snow is getting to them. Looking ahead, he sees a cave opening not to far. Leading the team inside they continue to run as the entrance is blocked by the snow.

The team walks through the cave, the light from the lantern the only way to see in the dark. Some of the team, Qibli most likely, starts to whimper in fear, the sound of their talons splashing in water as they walk.. The sled team comes into a bigger part of the cave. Clay gasped at the sight, the sound of his echoing gasp is the only sound. As Clay and the team walk past a few ice formation, Qibli grunts as he has some quick fun with some ice made stalagmites and stalactites. When he comes to a peculiar one in the shape of an alien familiar to the audience, he chuckles and said, "Ahhh!"

Clay looks around for the best way to go when suddenly a drop of water falls on his head. This surprises him as he looks up. Above the team is a whole bunch of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Knowing the slightest noise could bring them down, they would need to be quiet. The dragons behind him whisper to themselves, "Where are we?"

"Shh!" Clay quickly silenced them. With them all quiet, them Clay started to lead them through the cave. But once again, as he walked, his tail brushed up against Qibli's nose. The Sandwing started to feel the urge to sneeze, "Ah, ah, ahhh—"

Luckily, Riptide was quick enough to stop him in mid-sneeze by pressing a claw against the Sandwing's snout. Qibli gave sheepish smile as Riptide shook his claw off. The team silently made their way through the cave, nothing but the light splashing of water under their feet. But as the team and the sled came off a small ice shelf, the bottom of the sled hit the ground with a loud thud! Clay gasped at this and looked up to see and hear the ice starting to crack. A stalactite fell from its spot on the ceiling and crashed into the back of the sled. Riptide, Deathbringer and Qibli all cringed at the noise. All dragons looked to where the stalactite landed and gasped at the damage to the sled.

But their troubles were far from over. The crash from the stalactite caused more ice and stalactites to loosen. Since silence was out the window now, Clay decided to push the team to go faster and yelled, "Mush!"

As they started to run across the icy ground, stalactites started raining down. But with an excellent lead, Clay is able to lead the team around the fallen icicles. One of the stalactites fell to the ground right as the sled came and nearly knocked it to its side, but the sled slammed back down on the rudders. Unfortunately, it causes the crate to become cracked, revealing the jars of medicine.

The dragons in the back and sled start to slip and slide along the ice. The sled hit a patch of ice and slid with the other side facing the team. Clay looks back to the sled right as one of the medicine bottles falls and shatters on the icy ground. He gasps at the fact that the medicine was in immediate danger. Scrambling to get to the sled, Clay couldn't reach the sled. But looking to the side he decided to use a fallen stalactite to push himself to the sled. Sliding towards the sled on his back, he pushes against the wood of the crate with his back talons. Using the momentum of the push himself to the front of the team. With a smile that the medicine was secure again, he focuses on leading the team out of the cave. With a smile he sees the exit to the cave.

But the smile turns to shock and horror, as the team runs, the stalactites at the end of the cave start falling down. Clay watches as the ice continues to crack and fall. Just as the stalactites come crashing down, the dragon sled team clears the cave. Icy dust fills the cave as the team runs right out of it.

Back in a night covered Nome, things in the hospital weren't looking too good. The parents quietly talked as the children coughed. A nurse pulled a separation sheet back, revealing distraught parents as they felt useless and sad for their ailing loved ones. Some parents watched over their children as they tried to sleep. A nurse led a boy back to bed from somewhere. The nurse said to the child, "Come back to bed, hmm?"

In Rosy's room, as Peril watched over her girl, a nurse handed something to her mother while her father rested in her lap. The nurse said, "Here. Drink this."

"Oh." Rosy's mother said when she realized that the nurse was talking to her. Taking the cup she said, "Thanks."

The nurse watched as she took a sip. Both women looked equally sad as they turned their heads to the little girl and her dragon. Peril messed with her bandana as Rosy moaned from the sickness, looking much worse for wear. Laying her head down on the bandana, Peril could only hope and pray as she couldn't do anything for her girl.

Outside of Nome, as Peril's make shift Northern Lights still shined through the night, at the boat where Clay and Rodan stayed, said pterosaur kaiju and the two Goliath cubs sat in the cabin of the boat. All three of them worried for Clay as Thailog started to whimper. Even David whined, "Clay. C-C-Clay."

Thailog saw Clay's blanket hanging from a window, took it into his claws and wrapped the three in it. At this point, Rodan didn't mind the closeness to the cubs. He was too worried about Clay to think about anything else as he moved to the top of Thailog's head and depressingly set his chin on the Goliath's head. He stayed up there only a second when he heard a distant and powerful roaring. He thought of only one whose roar was that mighty as he lifted his head. The blanket fell off of his head as he whispered, "Clay?"

Looking out to the horizon, he waited to see if it was really him. Clay broke through a pile of snow with grunt as the other dragons panted right behind him. A smile of pure joy grew on his face as Rodan yelled, "Clay's back!"

As the dragon sled team kept running towards Nome, Clay saw something to help guide their way home. It was a bigger version of what he showed Peril the other night. With a smile on his face he said, "Peril."

He jumped and roared again to let the people of Nome know that hope was coming.

Inside the hospital, Peril still remained by Rosy's sighed as the roaring came to her reptilian ears. Knowing who exactly it was her head shot up with a gasp and then with a smile on her face she starts to grunt happily. Rosy's mother gasps awake at Peril's grunting, which in turn woke Rosy's father. The man said in surprise, "The team!"

"They made it!" His wife happily said. All around Nome, lights start to flicker on from the noise. People stick their heads out of the window to see what was going on. As the entire town of Nome lit up, the telegrapher and his Gronkle comes out of the office. But once again, the Gronkle gets stuck in the door. As soon as the telegrapher opens the door, the Gronkle hits his head on the connecting wall. With great joy, the telegrapher relights the lantern for the team.

In the dogs usual hang out, Flame was telling one of his many tales of his 'bravery' to the others while sucking on the bone, "'Course, as you know, I just—" He takes a quick suck as the girls giggled, "I swam and I swam. I was freezing cold. And then-" Then lowering the bone deeper into his mouth and with shot it up into the air and caught it as it came back down, "Then, finally, I just said, "Flame, you just have to gnaw your way to the surface." He scratches himself as he continued as Clay roars and the door opens, "So I—What?"

Webs looks outside and gasps, "It's Clay… with the medicine."

All the other dragons gasp at this turn of events. Flame gives a nervous chuckle and turns to Meatlug as she said, "Flame," She still looks smitten over him before taking on angered face, "you are positively "disposable"!" Then with a grunt and a slap of her talons, she knocks the bone out of his mouth. Flame just looks shocked as he puts his talons to his cheek.

The bone tumbles in front of the group of growling dragons. Trying to talk his way out of it, Flame said, "Okay, okay. I can explain."

The other dragons don't listen as they started to leave the room. One of the dragons said, "Tell me about it!"

"See, you guys weren't there. So you don't-" Flame tried to say. But the dragons continued walking out of the room. Flame saw that he was losing them and kept trying as he stepped closer to the bone, "Wait a minute. Guys. Wait just a second." He whined as he was left alone, "Please?"

The people of Nome cheered and chattered amongst themselves as they ran to the hospital to meet the dragon sled team. The crowd gathered by the numbers as more and more people left their homes. The crowd watched from the sides of the race track as Clay and the other dragons pulled the sled deeper into town.

As he ran through the town, Clay couldn't help but notice how the people of Nome were cheering at him instead of hating him. The team soon pulled in front of the hospital, and a second later the doctor came running out with a big smile on his face. He laughed in joy at the sight, and as some of the other men helped him to unload it he said, "Steady, steady. Easy now. That's had a long journey."

"How is he?" Someone asked about the musher. The doctor said, "He's gonna be okay."

Inside the hospital, the doctor and the nurses started administering the antitoxin to the sick children through a shot. It took some time for the antitoxin to work, but the results couldn't be better. Rosy's parent watched and waited as the nurse gave her the shot.

Clay could see the whole thing from the window with a smile. But his smiling face turned to one of mild-shock as the people of Nome gathered around him. An elderly woman said, "Good boy, Clay."

He felt a little confusion as more of the humans praised him for what he did. He received rubs to the head. The same woman said, "Dear, dear boy."

Some of the people helped him out of the harness as they continued to gratefully thank and praise him. Another person said, "That's a good boy!"

Rodan came down from the sky in a fit of laughter. Wrapping a wing around the back of the Mudwing's head, the pterosaur kaiju swung around the dragon. Then in a fit of joy and a friendly noogie he said, "Not normal, not wild! You're a hero!"

"Clay!" David shouted with a smile. Both of them looked and saw the Goliath in question ran through the crowd towards the hero. Rodan yells as David wrapped Clay in his arms and gives him a big lick on the cheek. The action causes them to stumble into the grasp of the mighty Thailog. The bigger Goliath wraps all three into his much bigger arms and lifts the three up. Like his smaller brother, Thailog happily licks Clay's cheek. Clay was able to squirm his way out of the Goliath's grasp and moved a little ways away.

The was caught off guard when someone rubbed the back of his head. Turning his head he saw that Rosy's father was standing right behind him. The man said, "Come on, boy. There's someone who wants to see you."

Clay followed the man inside the hospital as the towns folk started to cheer and applaud at him. Looking back he saw Rodan standing with the crowd. The pterosaur kaiju urged the Mudwing to go on in. Clay smiled at the kaiju before going inside the hospital.

Rosy still laid in her bed moaning as the diphtheria sickness was losing its hold on her. She began to open her eyes from her sleep. Rosy rubbed her eyes before looking to her mother and said, "Mommy?"

"Rosy, darling." Was all her mother could say, very relieved that her daughter was going to be fine. Thinking that she was only tired Rosy said, "Oh, I fell asleep."

"Rosy." Her father chuckled as oth of her parents came and hugged her with happiness in them. Clay smiled at the sight. He turned to look at the other children who were getting better. His eyes came upon a musher's cap just sitting in a chair. Clay smiled at the though of giving Rosy a surprise as he looked to her before walking to the chair. Carefully taking the cap in his teeth, he brought the musher's cap over to Rosy. When she saw the Mudwing in front of her, she whispered, "Clay." She took the cap from him and then wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug and gratefully said, "I'd be lost without you." She presses her head against his, which he returns whole-heartedly.

Peril clears her throat from behind, drawing Clay's attention. Looking to where she was, he saw her standing out on the porch of the hospital. Peril smiles at him, and the sight of seeing her again brought a smile on his face. He said, "Peril."

Running to meet her, the two dragons started to chase each other in a small circle. The two growled and grunted happily at the other. The stopped when their noses touched like they had a few days ago. Moving their heads to the side, Clay and Peril rubbed their heads against each other. When they stopped and looked at each other, Peril didn't say anything as she could only smile and look at the Mudwing. Clay looked at her as a smile formed on his face. Their small moment was interrupted at the sound of cheering from the crowd of people. Clay and Peril looked at the amassed crowd of people.

"Way to go, Clay!" Qibli shouted. Deathbringer started to go about usual way of expressing his feelings, "He has the most endurance, the most fidelity, intelligence—"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Riptide agreed. Qibli then shouted, "They should build a statue of him!"

He whimpers when Deathbringer bumps him from the side. But instead of bringing some kind of blow on the Sandwing, the Nightwing agreed with him, "You said it!"

Riptide smiled as Qibli asked, "I did?" Deathbringer didn't say anything, only smiled at his teammate. Clay and Peril pressed up against each other as the crowd continued to applaud and cheer for the heroic Mudwing.

Up in the sky, the real Northern Lights danced across the sky. The lights turned into the head of a dragon. The dragon head image reared back and let out its own roar.

Back in the present day, the Sandwing Sunny and her human girl found something during their walk in the park. The little girl turned her head to the right and said, "This is it, Grandma. Sunny found it!"

It was a statue of a dragon, but not just an ordinary dragon. Panting from the long walk, Rosy said, "Oh. Yes. Ah."

Sunny grunts as the girl feels the tablet. Grandma Rosy then asks, "What does it say?"

"Dedicated to the 'indomible'" – She read. Grandma Rosy gently corrects her, "Indomitable."

"'Indomible' spirit…" she continued to read, "of the sled dragons—"

"That relayed antitoxin…" Grandma Rosy read with her, "six-hundred miles from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome…" She took a deep breath and then said, "in the winter of nineteen twenty-five."

"Endurance, fidelity, intelligence." Sylvie read. Grandma Rosy chuckles as she looks up to the statue. Her granddaughter then asked, "Clay really did do all of that, didn't he, Grandma?"

"Oh, yes, sweetheart. He really did." Grandma Rosy said with pride. She moved to put Sylvie's cap on her head and said, "And today they run the dragon race… over the very path he and the others took."

"Can Sunny do that too, Grandma?" Sylvie asked as said dragon sniffed the ground. Then Grandma Rosy said, "Maybe, with practice."

Sunny starts grunting as Grandma Rosy said, "A lot of practice."

She chuckled as young Sylvie started to pretend to be a musher and said to Sunny, "Come on, Sunny. Come on. Mush!"

The both of them ran off, leaving Grandma Rosy by the statue of Clay. She smiled at her granddaughter's enthusiasm. Her face becomes serious as she looks back up to the statue of the Mudwing. A feeling of gratitude washed over her as she said to the statue, "Thank you, Clay. I would have been lost without you."

This clearly meant that she was once the little girl who had been saved by a wild Mudwing. Taking a moment to admire the statue, she then turned to catch up to Sylvie when the little girl called, "Grandma Rosy!"

Rosy looked to the statue as she walked away. She tried to quicken her pace as Sylvie, becoming a little impatient, called again, "Grandma Rosy, come on!"

The statue of Clay stood tall and proud, just as the real Clay did long ago.

Author's Note: I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. I have one more chapter to this story and I must admit that this is one of my best fanfics since it really made me want to cry. See all of you next time.


End file.
